BV  4DU1  .rD^^I« 

Fiske,  George  Walter,  1872- 

1945. 
Finding  the  comrade  God 


Finding  the  Comrade  God 

The  Essentials  of  a  SoIdierJ^Faith 

JAN  27  mg 

G.  WALTER  FISKE 

Junior  Dean,  Oberlin  Graduate  School  of  Theology 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

New   York:    347    Madison    Avenue 
1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by 

The  International  Committee  of 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 


The  Bible  text  printed  in  short  measure  (indented  both  sides)  is  taken 
from  the  American  Standard  Edition  of  the  Revised  Bible,  copyright,  1901,  by- 
Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  and  is  used  by  permission. 


TO  MY  FRIEND 

Howard  Tuxbury  Sands 

A  Business  Man  of  Sterling  Character 

A    Christian    Whose    Soldierly    Faith 

Is  the  Inspiration  of  All  His  Comrades 


KIeEP  heart,  0  COMRADE  !    GOD  MAY  BE    DELAYED 

By  evil,  but  he  suffers  no  defeat. 

God  is  not  foiled;  the  drift  of  the  world  will 

Is  stronger  than  all  wrong. 

— Whitman 


PREFACE 

Religion  IMust  Be  a  Discovery 

Religion  to  be  an  achievement  must  first  be  a  discovery. 
This  book  is  the  result  of  a  quest,  conducted  by  the  author 
a  few  months  ago  with  a  choice  company  of  business  men 
in  a  suburb  of  Boston.  Through  the  medium  of  a  lecture- 
discussion  course,  under  the  general  subject,  "Religion  for 
a  World  at  War,"  the  men  of  the  united  churches  of  Mel- 
rose for  twelve  weeks  endeavored  to  analyze  the  prime 
factors  of  religion,  the  essentials  of  a  soldierly  faith.  The 
studies  then  worked  out  with  these  men,  and  informally 
presented,  are  here  offered  for  the  use  of  similar  groups 
of  earnest  men  elsewhere. 

It  is  the  writer's  conviction  that  all  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian  faith  are  non-sectarian;  and  that 
the  Church  that  is  to  be  will  emphasize  only  the  great 
simple  truths  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Incarnation,  the  good 
news  of  a  Comrade  God  in  life,  the  common  possession 
of  all  Christians.  Sectarian  ideas  have  been  rigidly 
avoided.  Illustrative  material  has  been  gathered  as  far 
as  possible  from  the  religious  experience  of  current  life, 
in  order  that  the  book  may  more  definitely  meet  the  needs 
of  men  in  the  great  world  struggle. 

This  is  a  textbook  for  men  in  the  prime  factors  of  reli- 
gion. The  sevenfold  division  of  each  chapter,  with 
biblical   material   connected   with   each   section,   makes   it 


PREFACE 

convenient  to  use  the  book  privately  in  daily  devotional 
study,  as  well  as  in  Bible  classes  of  men.  Suggestive 
questions  based  mainly  on  the  text  are  given  at  the  end 
of  each  chapter,  to  guide  class  discussion  or  to  stimulate 
thought  in  private  study. 

No  bibliography  is  appended  to  these  chapters,  but  cer- 
tain recent  volumes  to  which  the  author  feels  particularly 
indebted  are  here  recommended  for  supplementary  read- 
ing. In  suggesting  them,  the  author  wishes  to  express  his 
sincere  appreciation  for  the  insights  and  inspirations  which 
these  volumes  have  given  him:  King,  "Fundamental 
Questions";  Palmer,  'The  Drift  Toward  ReHgion"; 
Jllingworth,  "Divine  Immanence";  McConnell,  "The 
Diviner  Immanence" ;  Hyde,  "The  Gospel  of  Good  Will" ; 
Lyman,  "The  Experience  of  God  in  Mo_dern_Life" ;  Han- 
key,  "A  Student  in  Arms,"  and  "The  Church  and  the 
Man" ;  Murray,  "Faith,  War,  and  Policy" ;  Eddy,  "Suffer- 
ing and  the  War,"  and  "With  Our  Soldiers  in  France"; 
Bosworth,  "The  Christian  Witness  in  War" ;  the  "Atlantic 
Papers" :  "The  War  and  the  Spirit  of  Youth" ;  Williams, 
"Shall  We  Understand  the  Bible?";  and  particularly  Dr. 
Fosdick's  four  volumes,  "The  Challenge  of  the  Present 
Crisis,"  "The  Assurance  of  Immortality,"  "The  Meaning 
of  Prayer,"  and  "The  Meaning  of  Faith." 

In  presenting  these  studies  of  religious  experience,  the 
author  gratefully  remembers  the  stimulating  comradeship 
of  that  remarkably  alert  group  of  men  in  Melrose,  whose 
keen  questions  and  unflagging  interest  were  a  constant 
challenge  to  him.  Without  their  inspiration,  encourage- 
ment, and  sympathetic  response  the  book  would  never 
have  been  written. 


vui 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface — Religion  Must  Be  a  Discovery vii 

CHAPTER 

I.   Discovering  the  Presence  of  God i 

Our  Need  of  Religion  with  Power i 

The  Power  of  Vital  Belief  in  God 2 

Our  Need  of  an  Unobtrusive  God 4 

Our  Secular  Uses  of  Faith 6 

How  God  Reveals  Himself  to  Men 8 

Our  Awareness  of  God  in  Crisis  Times 13 

Working  with  the  Comrade  God 16 

II.   Discovering  God's  Leadership  in  Human  Life 

AND  History 19 

God's  Help  in  Personal  Experience 19 

Does  God  Share  in  the  Making  of  History?.  .  .  23 

The  Cyclic  Course  of  Human  Progress 25 

Democracy:  The  Great  Trend  of  God's  Will. .  .  27 

God's  Providence  at  Crisis  Times 30 

Is  God  Now  Taking  a  Hand  in  History? 35 

What  Kind  of  a  God  Is  with  the  Kaiser? 38 

III.   Discovering  God  in  the  Laws  of  Life 43 

Nature  the  Beautiful  Body  of  God 43 

The  Lower  and  the  Higher  Nearness .-  46 

True  Science  Essentially  Devout 48 

The  Blessed  Uniformity  of  Natural  Law 49 

All  Natural  Law  the  Expression  of  God's  Life..  52 

How  Men  Use  and  Control  the  Laws  of  Nature  53 
The  Key  to  Miracle:  The  Interplay  of  Higher 

Laws 55 

ix 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  *  PAGE 

IV.   Finding  the  Christ  through  Comradeship  in 

Sacrifice 60 

Why  All  the  World  Admires  Jesus  Christ 60 

How  Belgium's  Sacrifice  Saved  Europe 62 

The  Soldier's  Experience  of  Vicarious  Sacrifice.  64 

How  Heroism  Transfigures  Men 66 

Finding  Christ  in  Flanders 69 

Finding  Christ  at  Home  through  Fellowship  in 

Suffering 72 

Are  We  Sure  that  Sacrifice  Pays.? 75 

V.   Finding  the  Comrade  God  by  the  Help  of 

THE  Christ 79 

A  New  Heresy:  Redemption  by  Battle  Death.  79 
Our  Need  of  Christ  to  Make  God  Seem  Per- 
sonal    81 

How  the  Word  Became  Flesh 83 

The  Reconciling  God  in  Christ 85 

Did  Jesus  Die  to  Make  God  Good.? 87 

A  Soldier's  Discovery  of  God  through  Christ.  .  91 

The  Great  Comrade  of  the  Way 93 

VL   Finding  Christ's  Power  to  Save  from  Sin.  ...  97 

A  Sin  Cure:  The  First  Test  of  Religion 97 

Evil  Habit,  the  Death  Grip  of  Sin loi 

Sin  Its  Own  Worst  Penalty 102 

The  Present  Worth  of  the  Savior  Christ 104 

Christ  in  the  Army  Hospitals 106 

Some  Modern  Miracles  of  Moral  Healing.  .  .  .  .  107 

The  Joy  of  the  New  Life no 

VII.   Finding  How  Christ  Saves 113 

What  Being  a  Christian  Means  Today .  113 

Redemption  More  Profound  than  Magic 114 

It  Takes  More  than  One  Cross  to  Make  Cal- 
vary    116 

X 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Jesus'  Method  of  Saving  Prodigals  and  Magda- 

lenes 119 

How  Christ  Challenges  the  Best  in  Men 123 

How  Human  Faith  and  Trust  Help  to  Save  Us  125 
The  Moral  Energy  Which  Saves  Men  from  Sin.   129 

Vni.   Discovering  God  in  the  Christian's  Bible.  .  .   133 

The  Bible  a  Book  of  Life 133 

Not  a  Magical  Holy  Book,  but  a  Part  of  Human 

History 135 

Useless  Claims  Which  Our  Bible  Never  Makes.  138 
The  Rich  Variety  in  the  Bible's  Messages.  .  .  .  141 
The  Wonderful  Romance  of  the  Bible's  Life.  .    143 

How  the  Bible  Grew 146 

Finding  God  in  the  Bible's  Best 150 

IX.   Discovering  in  the  Bible  God's  Method  with 

Men 154 

The  Inspired  Men  behind  the  Book 154 

How  God  Inspired  the  Herdsman  of  Tekoa.  .  .  156 
The   Age-Long   Contest    between    Priests    and 

Prophets 158 

God's    Progressive    Revelation    to    Discerning 

Seers 162 

The  Problem  of  Life;  The  Generation  and  Use 

of  Power 163 

The    Bible's    Greatest   Lesson:   A  First-Hand 

Touch  with  God 166 

God's  Method  of  Making  Men  Who  Can  Wield 

His  Power 168 

X.   Discovering  in  Prayer  Our  Way  to  God  and 

His  to  Us 173 

The  Naturalness  and  Universality  of  Prayer..  .  173 
Why  Prayer  to  a  Comrade  God  Is  Natural  to 

Men 176 

The  Tragedy  of  a  God  Who  Is  Deaf 177 

xi 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

What  Prayer  Meant  to  Our  Master 179 

Spiritual  Energy  Released  through  Prayer.  .  .  .  182 
Religion    as    Friendship    on    Speaking    Terms 

with  God 186 

The  World-Reach  of  United  Prayer 189 

XI.    Discovering  the  Life  of  Good  Will  Is  Eter- 
nal    194 

How  the  Fire  of  War  Refines  Our  Faith 194 

How  Jesus  Looked  at  the  Future  Life 198 

The  Religion  of  the  New  Death 200 

A  Heaven  of  Progress  and  Service 203 

The  Triumph  of  a  Father's  Faith 206 

Getting  Fit  for  Immortality 209 

The  Daily  Practice  of  the  Deathless  Life 212 

XII.  The  Essentials  of  a  Soldierly  Faith 215 

Reducing  Religion  to  Its  Prime  Factors 215 

The  Danger  of  Leaving  Out  God 217 

Religion  Which  Stands  the  High  Test 219 

The  Good  News  of  God  in  Life 221 

What  the  Soldier  Expects  of  the  Church 225 

Cooperation  among  Christian  Forces 228 

A  Comrade  World  for  the  Comrade  God 23 1 


Xll 


CHAPTER  I 

DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

Our  Need  of  Religion  with  Power 

Men  despise  a  weak  religion  which  .has  no  moral  chal- 
lenge in  it.  They  are  bored  by  creedal  disputes,  and  smile 
at  a  religion  of  mere  millinery.  A  religion  of  comforting 
platitudes  they  are  quite  likely  to  leave  to  the  women  and 
children.  But  a  religion  with  power  gets  men.  It  grips 
them  because  they  know  they  need  it.  No  other  kind 
seems  worth  a  man's  while.  When  they  see  religion  doing 
things,  they  open  their  eyes  in  reverent  respect;  but  when 
it  contents  itself  with  harking  back  to  its  past  glories, 
they  either  fall  asleep  or  think  of  other  things,  the  big 
things  of  today  which  red-blooded  men  are  doing.  The 
use  of  power  has  great  fascination  for  mature  men.  The 
problem  of  the  modern  man  is  the  generation  and  direc- 
tion of  power.  He  is  in  the  stress  of  vast  responsibilities, 
and  the  greater  the  stress,  the  more  he  welcomes  a  faith 
which  has  power  in  it,  a  religion  which  can  enlarge  his 
working  capacity,  develop  his  personality,  and  help  him 
live  the  victorious  life. 

The  idea  that  the  Creator  did  his  work  of  creation  in 
six  days,  and  has  rested  ever  since,  fails  to  satisfy  men 
who  toil.  Rest  is  not  their  ideal,  if  they  are  good  work- 
men and  not  mere  time-servers.  Jesus'  truer  teaching, 
"My  Father  worketh  until  now  and  I  work,"  with  its 
vision  of  a  God  who  continually  creates,  who  is  the  per- 
sonal force,  the  eternal  Energy  of  the  universe,  challenges 

1 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

men's  respect.  In  their  highest  moods,  men  not  only  want 
God's  help;  they  want  to  work  with  God,  in  a  splendid 
comradeship  of  power.  Their  souls  long  for  a  co-working 
God.  When  they  discover  that  God  is  the  great  Efficient 
Good  Will,  eternally  working,  with  the  benevolent  pur- 
pose to  make  a  world  of  friendly  workmen  out  of  this 
foolishly  selfish  world,  it  appeals  to  all  their  noblest  ideal- 
ism to  become  recruits  in  such  a  mighty  service,  to  be 
comrades  with  a  working  God,  who  strives  to  make  a  bet- 
ter world. 

The  everlasting  God,  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary;  there  is  no  searching  of  his  understand- 
ing. He  giveth  power  to  the  faint;  and  to  him 
that  hath  no  might  he  increaseth  strength.  Even 
the  youths  shall  faint  and  be  weary,  and  the 
young  men  shall  utterly  fall :  but  they  that  wait 
for  Jehovah  shall  renew  their  strength;  they 
shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles;  they  shall 
run,  and  not  be  weary;  they  shall  walk,  and  not 
faint. — Isa.  40:28-31. 

But  Jesus  answered  them,  My  Father  worketh 
even  until  now,  and  I  work. — John  5 :  17. 

The  Power  of  Vital  Belief  in  God 

"God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  liv- 
ing."— Matt.  22 :  32. 

The  unsatisfied  atheist  who  wrote,  "The  Great  Com- 
panion is  dead,"  was  unnerved  and  saddened  by  his  own 
pessimism.  Life  power  leaves  the  heart  of  the  man  who 
comes  to  feel  that  God  no  longer  lives  for  him.     In  the 

2 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

days  when  the  great  Russian,  Tolstoi,  had  lost  his  faith 
in  God,  he  tells  us  he  was  so  afraid  of  suicide  he  dared 
not  keep  a'  rope  in  the  house,  and  gave  up  hunting  and 
the  use  of  fire-arms.  "I  only  lived,"  he  writes  in  his 
"Confession,"  "at  those  times  when  I  believed  in  God." 
And  as  his  grip  on  faith  returned,  "I  need  only  to  be 
aware  of  God  to  live;  I  need  only  to  forget  him  or  dis- 
believe in  him  to  die.  To  know  God  and  to  live  is  one 
and  the  same  thing.  .  .  .  And  the  light  did  not  again 
abandon  me.  I  returned  to  belief  in  that  Will  which 
produced  me  and  desires  something  of  me."^ 

Surely  in  this  age  of  mighty  tasks,  when  nations  are 
Conserving  all  their  resources,  mobilizing  all  their  man- 
power, and  reorganizing  their  operations  and  efficiency 
methods,  it  is  time  for  us  to  get  the  maximum  power  out 
of  our  religion.  To  neglect  this  mighty  source  of  power 
would  be  the  biggest  waste  of  all.  A  splendid  young 
French  soldier,  Leo  Latil,  wrote  home  to  his  family,  "Do 
not  pray  that  I  may  be  spared  suffering.  Pray  rather 
that  I  may  be  able  to  bear  it,  and  that  the  courage  I  long 
for  may  be  given  me.""  Another  French  soldier,  Bernard 
Lavergne,  whose  religion  evidently  was  a  very  real  thing, 
wrote  thus  to  his  family:  "Tonight  we  leave  for  the 
trenches.  Tonight  I  shall  be  watching  over  you,  rifle 
in  hand.  Yon  know  who  is  watching  over  me."^  Religion 
is  for  those  who  fight,  for  those  who  dare  great  dangers, 
who  venture  upon  vast  enterprises,  who  undertake  heroic 
labors.  In  religion,  that  is,  in  the  life  which  works  with 
the    Comrade    God,    men    multiply    their    strength.      The 

i"Life  of  Tolstoi,"  by  Maude,  V.  I,  p.  418. 

2  "The  War  and  the  Spirit  of  Youth,"  p.  24. 

3  Ibid,  p.  58. 

3 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

philosopher  William  James,  of  Harvard,  testified:  "Every 
sort  of  energy  and  endurance,  of  courage  and  capacity 
for  handling  life's  evils,  is  set  free  in  those  who  have  reli- 
gious faith.  For  this  reason,  religion  will  drive  irreligion 
to  the  wall."*  Thinking  men  today  instinctively  believe 
this,  and  in  their  sense  of  need  they  are  more  and  more 
earnestly  seeking  the  power  of  the  presence  of  God.  The 
law  of  the  indestructibility  of  energy  leads  them  back  to 
the  great  reservoir  of  power  in  God  Almighty.  There 
they  long  to  renew  their  strength,  to  mount  up  colossal 
difficulties  with  wings  as  eagles,  to  run  under  heavy  strain, 
to  walk  with  heavy  burdens,  yet  to  live  the  unwearied  life. 
Professor  Walter  Rauschenbusch  declares,  "Our  moral 
efficiency  depends  on  our  religious  faith.  The  force  of  will, 
of  courage,  of  self-sacrifice  liberated  by  a  living  religious 
faith  is  so  incalculable,  so  invincible,  that  nothing  is  im- 
possible when  that  power  enters  the  field."^ 

And  Jesus  looking  upon  them  said  to  them, 
With  men  this  is  impossible;  but  with  God  all 
things  are  possible. — Matt.  19 :  26. 

My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee:  for  my  power 
is  made  perfect  in  weakness. — II  Cor.  12:9. 

If  ye  have  faith  .  .  .  nothing  shall  be  impos- 
sible unto  you. — Matt.  17:20. 

Our  Need  of  an  Unobtrusive  God 

Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him ! 
That  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat ! 
I  would  set  my  cause  in  order  before  him, 
And  fill  my  mouth  with  arguments. 

4  Quoted  by  Prof.  E.  W.  Lyman,  in  "The  Expterience  of  Gcd  in  Modem 
Life,"  p.  70. 

6  "Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  p.  41. 

4 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

I  would  know  the  words  which  he  would  answer 
me, 

And  understand  what  he  would  say  unto  me.  ... 

Behold,  I  go  forward,  but  he  is  not  there; 

And  backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive  him ; 

On  the  left  hand,  when  he  doth  work,  but  I  can- 
not behold  him; 

He  hideth  himself  on  the  right  hand,  that  I  can- 
not see  him. 

—Job  23:3-5,  8,  9. 

After  all,  it  is  fortunate  that  "no  man  hath  beheld  God 
at  any  time"  (I  John  4:  12).  It  is  foolish  for  a  man  to 
say,  ''I  will  not  believe  in  any  God  I  cannot  see."  On  the 
contrary,  we  could  not  worship  a  visible  God.  A  God 
small  enough  to  come  within  our  narrow  range  of  vision 
would  be  too  limited  a  God.  He  would  soon  satisfy  our 
curiosity  and  cease  to  command  our  awe,  our  reverential 
worship.  But  if  mortal  eyes  should  be  able  to  behold 
infinite  power,  they  could  not  stand  the  sight  of  it.  As 
the  glare  of  daylight  dazed  and  blinded  Captain  Straight, 
of  Canada,  after  his  five  months  of  solitary  confinement  in 
a  subterranean  German  dungeon,  and  felled  him  to  the 
ground  in  utter  weakness,  so,  very  likely,  God's  visible 
presence  would  overcome  our  human  faculties. 

"This  unobtrusiveness  of  God,"  says  President  Henry 
C.  iCing,  "seems  to  be  necessary  to  our  spiritual  training."^ 
Otherwise  we  should  no  longer  really  be  free  to  make 
moral  choices  and  develop  character.  The  right  would 
be  too  obvious  for  choice.  God's  will  would  fetter  ours. 
There  could  be  no  human  freedom.  A  moral  world  de- 
mands  a   probation   time   for   human   wills   to   deliberate 

8  "Fundamental  Questions,"  p.  92. 

5 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

ireely,  for  individuality  to  grow  in  the  midst  of  moral 
alternatives.  The  eagle  forces  the  eaglet  to  fly  alone; 
so  a  father  wisely  accustoms  his  growing  boy  to  make  his 
own  independent  choices,  with  a  limited  amount  of  guid- 
ance. Thus  the  invisible  God  unobtrusively  keeps  in  the 
shadow,  lest  he  cripple  our  freedom  and  paralyse  our  faith. 
"Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above 
his  own."  We  must  learn  to  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight. 
We  need  God's  help,  but  not  his  domination  of  our  life. 
He  is  no  overbearing  tyrant,  with  Hohenzollern  officialism 
killing  our  initiative  with  omnipresent  verboten  signs, 
and  effectively  dictating  even  the  common  details  of  our 
life.  To  do  this  would  be  to  stultify  and  weaken  charac- 
ter and  demoralize  it.  God  knows  better.  He  gives  his 
children  democratic  freedom,  opportunity  for  real  initia- 
tive, moral  elbow-room,  by  keeping  his  overpowering  pres- 
ence veiled.  Let  us  not  be  sorry  that  we  must  dare  the 
climbing  way  of  adventurous  faith.  Let  us  be  thankful 
an  unobtrusive  God  lets  us  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight. 

But  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true 
worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit 
and  truth :  for  such  doth  the  Father  seek  to  be  his 
worshippers.  God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they  that  wor- 
ship him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth. — John 
4:23,24. 

Our  Secular  Uses  of  Faith 

Now  faith  is  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  a 
conviction  of  things  not  seen. — Heb.  11:  i. 

The  proving  of  your  faith  worketh  patience. — 
James  i :  3. 

In  faith  ye  stand  fast. — H  Cor.  i :  24. 
6 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  seeing  the  invisible  through 
faith  is  an  everyday  commonplace.  If  faith  is  a  sixth 
sense,  a  spiritual  sense,  by  which  the  eye  of  the  soul  sees 
what  the  eye  of  the  body  cannot — then  the  act  of  faith 
is  our  everyday  habit.  We  take  the  world  on  trust  and 
live  our  common  life  by  faith.  We  cross  every  bridge 
on  faith  in  its  builder.  We  make  every  investment  with 
faith  in  human  good  will.  We  plant  our  fields  with  faith 
in  the  laws  of  nature.  We  judge  the  invisible  character 
of  a  stranger  by  the  visible  face  and  its  limited  expres- 
sions. All  natural  forces  are  unseen.  The  motion  of  the 
earth,  the  vibrations  of  the  ether,  the  current  of  electricity, 
the  air  pressure  all  about  us,  make  little  or  no  report 
through  our  senses.  But  we  believe  in  them  all  just  the 
same.  *T  accept  the  universe,"  said  the  pedantic  Arnold. 
"  'Gad,  he'd  better !"  said  the  blunt  Carlyle. 

We  cannot  see  or  hear  or  feel  the  earth  move,  but  we 
go  to  sleep  at  night  without  worrying  as  to  whether  the 
morning  will  find  us  in  darkness,  with  the  earth  on  a 
centrifugal  strike.  We  never  saw  the  ether  or  heard 
it  vibrate,  yet  we  allow  its  invisible  waves  to  carry  our 
wireless  messages  over  land  and  sea  today,  and  trust  that 
it  will  do  so  a  year  from  today.  In  this  confident  faith 
we  train  10,000  young  men  in  a  single  year  for  the  radio- 
service  of  our  American  Navy.  Our  faith  in  that  invisible 
wizard,  electricity,  increases  constantly  the  more  we  trust 
its  power  and  its  light.  Our  faith  in  the  conservative 
inertia  of  the  air's  pressure  enters  into  countless  calcula- 
tions on  which  our  daily  routine  is  based.  We  use  all  of 
these  forces,  though  we  sense  none  of  them.  We  simply 
have  faith  in  them,  that  is  all;  but  that  is  quite  enough 
for  all  practical  purposes. 

7 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

To  ridicule  faith  is  the  folly  of  a  vacant  mind.  The 
man  who  claims  he  does  not  believe  in  anything  he  can- 
not see,  is  talking  plain  nonsense.  He  is  superficial.  He 
ought  to  know  he  uses  faith  constantly.  In  his  secular 
life  he  is  always  walking  by  faith.  It  is  the  nature  of  all 
power  to  be  veiled  and  to  make  demands  upon  our  faith 
sense.  Naked  power  would  be  as  intolerable  as  a  visible 
God.  Possibly  the  forces  in  life  are  invisible  because  they 
are  but  the  vital  functions  of  the  invisible  God  of  all 
power.  Now  common  sense  should  tell  us  that  it  is  just 
as  reasonable  to  live  by  faith  in  an  invisible  God,  as  to 
live  by  faith  in  invisible  forces.  It  would  be  irrational 
to  have  the  courage  of  faith  in  all  else  but  religion,  and 
then  to  deny  faith's  province  there.  The  human  spirit 
naturally  trusts  the  invisible  forces  of  life.  It  is  natural 
and  reasonable  for  us  to  trust  the  great  Efficient  Good 
Will,  who  is  at  the  heart  of  all  life. 


How  God  Reveals  Himself  to  Men 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  all  persons  are  invisible.  We 
peer  into  human  faces  and  sometimes  see  very  little  of 
personality  there.  Some  faces  make  excellent  masks. 
Others,  as  Emerson  says,  are  "like  Geneva  watches  with 
crystal  faces,  which  reveal  the  whole  movement."  In  any 
case  the  human  body  conceals  the  spirit  far  more  than  it 
reveals  it.  We  may  see  a  man  daily  for  years,  and  still 
feel  that  we  do  not  know  him,  we  have  caught  so  few 
glimpses  of  his  spirit.  "He  doesn't  open  up  to  us,"  we 
say.  Stingy  persons  are  self-contained.  They  are  selfish 
in  their  friendships;  too  sparing  of  their  vitality.  Gen- 
erous souls  are  life-sharers.    They  reveal  their  inner  life 

8 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

and  character  to  their  friends,  and  this  is  what  makes 
friendship  holy  and  helpful,  for  the  truest  gift  one  can 
give  is  himself.  We  may  learn  much  and  guess  more 
about  our  friend's  invisible  character,  as  we  watch  his 
conduct;  but  only  through  his  self-revelation  can  we  really 
know  him. 

The  Comrade  God  is  no  exception  to  this  rule  of  per- 
sonality. As  he  reveals  himself  we  can  discern  him,  if 
we  use  our  natural  function  of  faith;  though  he  has  to 
be  less  obtrusive  than  our  other  friends,  his  infinite 
Spirit  veiled  with  a  heavier  veil  than  the  human  body. 
God's  great  self-revelations  are  four.  His  Spirit  of  Good 
Will  reveals  itself  in  nature,  in  the  trends  of  human 
history,  in  human  experience  and  character,  and  in  the 
unique  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  These  last  three  are  partly 
combined  and  reported  in  the  Bible,  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Christian  Scriptures.  The  study  of  religion  is  the  quest 
for  God  in  the  Incarnation :  Religion  finds  the  Efficient 
Good  Will  in  the  unfolding  life  of  nature,  which  in  some 
true  sense  is  his  body.  Religion  discerns  God's  influence 
in  the  cyclic  progress  of  human  history,  through  which 
he  works  his  will.  Religion  discovers  God's  immanent 
presence  in  our  human  experience  and  in  the  sublime 
characters  who  seem  best  able  to  share  his  Spirit.  And 
supremely,  religion  discovers  God's  character  perfectly 
revealed  in  the  "Crystal  Christ."  It  is  the  purpose  of  this 
book  to  trace  in  a  humble  way  the  outline  of  this  fourfold 
quest  of  the  religion  of  the  Incarnation. 

All  through  the  centuries  God  has  tried  to  reveal  him- 
self to  men,  without  breaking  down  his  reserve  or  forc- 
ing his  presence  upon  human  senses,  and  thus  endanger- 
ing human  freedom.    The  highest  product  of  the  wonder- 

9 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

ful  process  of  evolution  was  a  human  consciousness  capa- 
ble of  discerning  God.  A  discerning  faith  is  the  crown 
of  God's  continuous  creation.  During  the  groping  early 
centuries  most  men  were  in  the  dark  spiritually,  but  a 
few  who  had  won  the  sense  of  faith  were  called  seers. 
They  were  called  prophets  (from  the  Greek,  "to  speak 
for"),  because  they  spoke  for  God  to  men.  They  were 
called  seers  because  with  the  inner  vision  they  could 
perceive  God's  presence,  and  with  their  inner  ear  syn- 
chronized to  the  vibrations  of  his  quiet  messages,  they 
could  hear  his  voice,  and  then  declare,  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord."  We  do  not  have  to  believe  that  God  used  vocal 
cords  in  speaking  to  these  ancient  prophets.  Such  faith 
is  all  too  apt  to  breed  unbelief  in  our  power  to  hear  him 
speak  to  us  today.  Amos,  Hosea,  Micah,  Isaiah,  and  their 
noble  company,  were  the  spiritual  pioneers  in  the  greatest 
movement  in  human  history,  beside  which  the  political 
movements  of  kings  and  warriors  were  relatively  insig- 
nificant. But  to  say  that  God  ceased  speaking  when 
the  Hebrew  prophets  died,  is  to  claim  Hebrew  to  be  the 
sole  language  of  heaven !  God  has  never  been  dumb. 
The  only  trouble  is,  men  have  been  deaf.  He  speaks  to 
every  soul  whose  spiritual  senses  are  alive  to  his  pres- 
ence, now  and  always. 

One  of  the  best  illustrations  of  this  in  the  Bible  is  the 
story  of  the  way  God  revealed  himself  to  the  prophet 
Elijah  in  a  terrific  thunderstorm  on  Mt.  Sinai,  when 
Elijah  had  fled  into  the  wilderness  to  escape  the  furious 
vengeance  of  the  wicked  queen  Jezebel,  one  of  the  most 
evil  women  of  history.  Elijah  had  shown  great  heroism. 
He  had  dared  to  denounce  King  Ahab  for  his  sins. 
He  had  dared  to  champion  the  cause  of  Jehovah  alone, 

10 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

before  an  unfriendly  people,  and  in  a  test  of  faith  with 
many  fanatical  prophets  of  Baal.  He  won  his  single- 
handed  combat.  God's  power  was  revealed  to  His  people, 
in  the  greatest  crisis  in  Hebrew  history,  when  monotheism 
had  all  but  died  out  in  Israel.  Then  the  prophet,  in  excess 
of  zeal,  killed  the  heathen  prophets  and  incurred  the  wrath 
of  their  sponsor,  Queen  Jezebel.  After  the  strain  was 
over,  in  his  great  weariness,  and  nervous  exhaustion,  the 
man  who  had  stood  alone  with  God  against  the  hosts  of 
paganism,  fled  before  a  single  angry  woman — as  many 
another  man  has  done  who  preferred  to  face  artillery. 
He  fled  post-haste  to  the  south,  many  miles  into  the 
wilderness.  Reaching  Beersheba,  the  southernmost  out- 
post of  Palestine,  he  left  his  manservant  there  and  plunged 
alone  into  the  desert  and  the  mountains  beyond.  The 
following  passage  tells  us  vividly  how  God  met  him,  so 
many  miles  from  home,  so  far  from  duty. 

And  he  came  thither  unto  a  cave,  and  lodged 
there;  and,  behold,  the  word  of  Jehovah  came  to 
him,  and  he  said  unto  him.  What  doest  thou  here, 
Elijah?  And  he  said,  I  have  been  very  jealous 
for  Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts;  for  the  children 
of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy  covenant,  thrown 
down  thine  altars,  and  slain  thy  prophets  with  the 
sword :  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left ;  and  they  seek 
my  life,  to  take  it  away.  And  he  said.  Go  forth, 
and  stand  upon  the  mount  before  Jehovah.  And, 
behold,  Jehovah  passed  by,  and  a  great  and  strong 
wind  rent  the  mountains,  and  brake  in  pieces  the 
rocks  before  Jehovah ;  but  Jehovah  was  not  in  the 
wind:  and  after  the  wind  an  earthquake;  but 
Jehovah  was  not  in  the  earthquake :  and  after  the 
11 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

earthquake  a  fire;  but  Jehovah  was  not  in  the 
fire :  and  after  the  fire  a  still  small  voice. — I  Kings 
19:9-12. 

That  is,  God  v^as  not  particularly  revealing  himself  just 
then  either  in  the  wind,  the  earthquake,  or  the  lightning; 
though  he  is  in  every  wind  that  blows,  and  the  force  of 
every  earthquake  shock  and  lightning  stroke  is  the  power 
of  nature's  God,  none  other.  Sometimes  it  takes  earth- 
quake and  thunder  to  shock  our  deaf  natures  into  the 
mood  to  listen  to  our  God.  By  this  time  Elijah  had  for- 
gotten Jezebel  and  was  ready  to  listen  to  Jehovah,  whis- 
pering to  his  heart: 

And  after  the  fire  a  still  small  voice.  And  it 
was  so,  when  Elijah  heard  it,  that  he  wrapped 
his  face  in  his  mantle,  and  went  out,  and  stood  in 
the  entrance  of  the  cave.  And,  behold,  there 
came  a  voice  unto  him,  and  said,  What  doest 
thou  here,  Elijah?  And  he  said,  I  have  been  very 
jealous  for  Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts;  for  the 
children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  thy  covenant, 
thrown  down  thine  altars,  and  slain  thy  prophets 
with  the  sword;  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left;  and 
they  seek  my  life,  to  take  it  away. 

And  Jehovah  said  unto  him.  Go,  return  on  thy 
way  to  the  wilderness  of  Damascus:  and  when 
thou  comest,  thou  shalt  anoint  Hazael  to  be  king 
over  Syria;  and  Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi  shalt 
thou  anoint  to  be  king  over  Israel ;  and  Elisha  the 
son  of  Shaphat  of  Abelmeholah  shalt  thou  anoint 
to  be  prophet  in  thy  room. — I  Kings  19:  12-16. 

And  so  Elijah's  crisis  was  passed.    His  faith  saved  him. 
12 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

The  role  of  a  slacker  was  a  strange  one  for  this  grand  old 
hero,  and  he  quickly  got  over  it.  Over  the  top  he  went 
again,  pell  mell  into  the  seething  politics  of  his  time, 
making  and  unmaking  kings,  and  leading  back  his  fickle 
people  to  the  worship  of  their  fathers'  God. 

Our  Awareness  of  God  in  Crisis  Times 

Yes,  God  can  and  does  reveal  himself  to  the  hearts  of 
willing  men  who  have  the  faith  sense  to  discern  him.  In 
crisis  times  of  human  history  there  are  many  who  thus 
become  aware  of  God.  The  entire  reasonableness  of  this 
idea,  still  strange  to  many,  was  impressed  upon  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking world  when  so  rationalistic  a  thinker  as 
H.  G.  Wells,  of  England,  accepted  it  and  began  to  teach 
it.  In  his  book,  *'God  the  Invisible  King,"  he  puts  great '-^ 
stress  upon  the  fact  that  God  can  and  does  make  himself 
known  to  human  lives  at  times  of  special  need  and  re- 
sponsiveness. "Modern  religion,"  he  writes,  "bases  its 
knowledge  of  God  and  its  account  of  God  entirely  upon 
experience.  It  has  encountered  God.  It  does  not  argue 
about  God;  it  relates.  .  .  .  Suddenly,  in  a  little  while,  in 
his  own  time,  God  comes.  This  cardinal  experience  is  an 
undoubting,  immediate  sense  of  God." 

There  can  be  no  question  that  in  these  war-time  days, 
under  the  stress  of  awful  crises,  many  men,  like  Mr. 
Wells,  not  especially  pious  heretofore,  are  finding  a  new 
and  vivid  experience  of  God.  It  is  not  that  God  is  anyV 
nearer,  but  men  are  less  oblivious  to  his  presence.  In 
days  of  materialistic  prosperity,  we  easily  forget  God. 
But  now  the  day  of  supreme  need  is  upon  the  world,  and 
among  all  nations  men  are  becoming  aware  of  him.    Just 

13 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

as  Raymond  Robins,  lost  in  the  Arctic  snows  of  Alaska, 
finds  the  whole  course  of  his  life  changed  because,  alone 
there  among  the  mountains,  he  suddenly  becomes  aware 
of  God  and  gets  a  message  for  his  life  which  makes  him 
ever  after  a  consecrated  man,  a  modern  prophet  of  spirit- 
ual insight  and  great  personal  power;  so  tonight,  in  the 
trenches,  at  the  lonely  listening  post,  or  wounded  in  no- 
man's-land,  the  soldiers  are  having  time  to  think,  and  the 
world  of  the  spirit  is  speaking  to  them,  quietly,  but  more 
effectively  than  the  world  of  the  senses,  even  amidst  the 
crashing  thunder  of  the  guns.  They  are  encountering 
God.  And  discovering  his  reality  is  reorganizing  their 
life.  Said  an  American  college  student,  now  a  soldier 
in  France,  "I  feel  somehow  as  if  everything  is  all  right, 
and  God  and  I  understand  each  other.  I  reach  out  and 
touch  him  and  know  he  is  there." 

They  that  trust  in  Jehovah 

Are  as  mount  Zion,  which  cannot  be  moved,  but 

abideth  for  ever. 
As  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jerusalem, 
So  Jehovah  is  round  about  his  people 
From  this  time  forth  and  for  evermore. 

— ^Psalm  125 : 1,  2. 

A  characteristic  experience  is  described  by  Donald  Han- 
key  of  a  young  English  soldier  who  lay  all  night  alone, 
severely  wounded,  in  no-man's-land,  and  made  this  vivid 
personal  discovery  of  God's  presence.  "He  found  himself 
vaguely  wondering  about  the  meaning  of  everything.  The 
stars  seemed  to  make  it  all  seem  so  small  and  petty.  All 
this  bloodshed — what  was  the  good  of  it?  It  was  all  so 
ephemeral,    so   trivial,    in   the   presence   of   eternity   and 

14 


*  DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

infinity.  It  was  just  a  strife  of  pygmies.  Suddenly  he 
felt  terribly  small  and  lonely,  and  he  was  so  very,  very 
weak.  He  was  cut  off  from  his  fellowmen  as  surely  as 
if  he  had  been  on  a  desert  island,  and  he  felt  somehow 
as  if  he  had  got  out  of  his  element,  and  was  launched, 
a  tiny  pygmy  soul,  on  the  sea  of  immensity,  where  he 
could  find  no  bearings.  .  .  .  The  stars  gazed  at  him  im- 
perturbably.  There  was  no  sympathy  there,  but  only  cold, 
unseeing  tolerance.  Yet  after  all,  he  had  the  advantage 
of  them.  For  all  his  pygmy  ineffectiveness  he  was  of  finer 
stuff  than  they.  At  least  he  could  feel — suffer.  He  had 
only  to  try  to  move  to  verify  that.  .  .  .  There  was  that 
in  him  which  was  not  in  them  unless — unless  it  was  in 
everything.  'God!'  he  whispered  softly,  'God  every- 
where !'  Then  into  his  tired  brain  came  a  new  phrase 
— 'Underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms.'  He  sighed  con- 
tentedly, as  a  tired  child,  and  the  phrase  went  on  repeat- 
ing itself  in  his  brain  in  a  kind  of  chant — 'Underneath 
are  the  everlasting  arms.'  "^ 

We  should  not  discount  such  experiences  because  we 
think  they  are  rare  in  ordinary  life.  The  literature  of 
mystical  religion  is  full  of  them.  We  have  a  right  to 
scrutinize  carefully  their  evidence,  but  thinking  men  dare 
not  deny  their  reality.  In  the  personal  letters  of  so  care- 
ful a  thinker  as  James  Russell  Lowell,  we  find  evidence 
of  a  somewhat  similar  experience.  He  wrote,  "Mr. 
Putnam  entered  into  an  argument  with  me  on  spiritual 
matters.  As  I  was  speaking,  the  whole  system  rose  up 
before  me  like  a  vague  destiny  looming  from  the  abyss. 
I  never  before  so  clearly  felt  the  Spirit  of  God  in  me 
and  around  me.    The  whole  room  seemed  to  me  to  be  full 

7  "A  Student  in  Anns,"  First  Series,  p.  151. 

15 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  God,  The  air  seemed  to  waver  to  and  fro  with  the 
presence  of  something,  I  knew  not  what.  I  spoke  with 
the  clearness  and  calmness  of  a  prophet."* 

The  eternal  God  is  thy  dwelling-place, 
And  underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms. 

— Deut.  33 :  27. 

Working  with  the  Comrade  God 

But  these  discoveries  of  God's  presence  in  the  world 
amount  to  mere  selfish  indulgence,  unless  they  bring 
power  for  service  into  our  lives.  We  criticize  spiritual- 
ism because  it  claims  to  see  visions  and  hear  voices  from 
the  spirit  world,  but  does  nothing  about  it.  It  is  an  empty 
shell  of  religion,  a  religion  without  a  heart;  for  it  has  no 
program  but  to  look  and  listen,  and  with  a  purely  selfish 
purpose  at  that.  Likewise  in  the  stress  of  these  crisis 
days,  if  men  discover  a  new  sense  of  God's  reality  and 
his  presence,  it  is  a  woeful  waste  of  spiritual  forces  un- 
less this  experience  brings  fresh  power  into  their  lives, 
a  deeper  devotion  to  humanity  in  its  fierce  struggle  with 
Thor  and  Woden.  We  gain  this  new  sense  of  power, 
just  as  soon  as  we  make  the  crowning  discovery  that  this 
God-who-is-near  is  a  Comrade-in-arms,  a  co-worker  in 
all  the  noble  purposes  of  our  lives,  and  especially  now 
in  the  common  task  of  rescuing  the  world  from  the 
ravages  of  the  "great  blond  beast." 

I  planted,  Apollos  watered;  but  God  gave  the 
increase.  So  then  neither  is  he  that  planteth  any- 
thing, neither  he  that  watereth ;  but  God  that 
giveth  the  increase.    Now  he  that  planteth  and 


8  Letters,  Vol.  i,  p.  75. 

16 


DISCOVERING  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

he  that  watereth  are  one:  but  each  shall  receive 
his  own  reward  according  to  his  own  labor.  For 
we  are  God's  f ellow- workers :  ye  are  God's  hus- 
bandry, God's  building. — I  Cor.  3  :  6-9. 

Every  worker  for  every  righteo.us  cause  needs  to  have 
these  words  forever  in  his  memory.  "We  are  God's  fel- 
low-workers." It  is  a  powerful  motive  to  feel  that  our 
cause  is  so  great  and  so  holy  that  God  is  in  the  ranks 
of  militant  righteousness  with  us,  that  we  are  not  only 
his  instruments,  to  help  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  pur- 
pose, but  comrades  with  him  in  a  mutual  service,  with 
him,  our  Comrade  God.  We  need  to  fortify  our  faith  that 
God,  the  great  Efficient  Good  Will,  is  taking  a  hand  in 
this  vast  world  movement,  in  the  vortex  of  which  we  now 
find  ourselves.  To  this  end,  we  study  in  the  next  chapter 
the  question  of  God's  share  in  the  making  of  history. 
Meanwhile  let  us  find  a  challenge  to  a  steadier  faith  in 
the  calm  confidence  of  these  words  of  Dr.  Edward  I. 
Bosworth:  "God  is  forcing  the  world  forward,  and  we 
ought  to  be  alive  to  God  in  the  glad  recognition  of  and 
participation  in  this  forward  movement.  It  is  incon- 
ceivable that  God,  whose  life  and  energy  penetrate  and 
vitalize  all  being,  should  have  nothing  whatsoever  to  do 
with  such  an  upheaval  of  world  civilization.  .  .  .  There 
are  certain  things  taking  place  on  a  large  scale  that  those 
who  are  alive  to  God  must  see."^ 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

Why  does  a  religion  with  power  appeal  to  men?  What 
other  characteristics  do  you  look  for  in  your  religion? 

^The  North  American  Student,  October,  191 7,  p.  5- 

17 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Do  you  wish  you  could  see  God?  Why  is  it  far  better 
that  God  is  an  unobtrusive  Spirit? 

Explain  what  it  means  to  think  of  faith  as  a  sixth 
sense.  In  what  practical  ways  are  we  constantly  using 
this  faith-sense  in  our  common  life?  How  did  you  come 
to  have  faith  in  electricity  and  other  invisible  forces? 
Is  it  just  as  reasonable  to  live  by  faith  in  the  invisible 
God?    What  has  faith  to  do  with  moral  courage? 

Can  you  really  see  a  human  personality?  How  do  per- 
sons reveal  themselves?  In  what  four  chief  ways  does 
the  unseen  God  reveal  himself?  What  is  a  "seer?"  How 
do  you  think  Elijah  heard  God's  voice  on  Mt.  Horeb? 

What  do  you  think  Mr.  Wells  means  by  his  expression, 
"encountering  God"?  When  Raymond  Robins  met  God 
in  Alaska,  how  did  it  change  his  life?  Have  you  ever, 
at  crisis  times,  become  suddenly  aware  of  God?  What 
made  God  seem  real  to  you  then? 

Can  you  think  of  God  as  near  at  hand?  Explain  the 
great  thought  of  a  Comrade  God  which  Paul  gives  us  in 
his  words,  "We  are  God's  fellow-workers." 


18 


CHAPTER  II 

DISCOVERING   GOD^S    LEADERSHIP    IN 
HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

After  convincing  ourselves  of  the  presence  of  God 
in  the  midst  of  our  world,  two  earnest  questions  come 
to  us.  Can  we  trust  God's  help  in  our  personal  life?  Can 
we  believe  he  is  guiding  the  course  of  history  ?  The  latter 
question  will  claim  our  attention  through  most  of  this 
chapter.  The  former  will  here  be  briefly  considered,  and 
will  recur  again  in  later  chapters. 

God's  Help  in  Personal  Experience 

I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  mountains : 
From  whence  shall  my  help  come? 
My  help  cometh  from  Jehovah, 
Who  made  heaven  and  earth. 

— Psalm  121 :  i,  2. 

A  genuinely  religious  life  must  be  a  comradeship  be- 
tween divine  and  human  spirits.  Most  religions  assume 
that  there  can  be  personal  relations  between  God  and 
men.  Jesus  made  this  the  first  axiom  of  his  own  faith. 
Whether  working  as  a  carpenter  at  the  bench,  speaking 
as  a  public  teacher  in  the  synagogues,  healing  disease 
as  a  good  physician,  or  suffering  a  lingering  death  on  the 
Roman  cross,  Jesus  frankly  acknowledged  his  dependence 
upon  God.    He  never  seemed  quite  to  forget  his  heavenly 

19 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Father ;  and  God  always  seemed  to  be  helping  him.  After 
long  nerve-taxing  days  of  sympathetic  service  of  all  kinds 
of  people,  his  friends  would  see  him  quietly  slipping  away 
from  the  crowd  to  be  alone  for  awhile  with  God.  They 
knew  that  God  helped  him,  that  he  gave  him  rest  and 
refreshment  of  spirit  and  new  strength  for  his  work. 
They  knew  he  lived  his  life  in  God's  conscious  presence. 

As  long  as  men  think  of  God  only  as  a  king,  reigning 
on  an  august  throne  in  some  far  distant  world  of  stranger 
spirits,  communicating  with  the  world  of  men  only  by 
means  of  ministering  angels,  this  faith  in  God's  personal 
help  is  quite  unreal.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  it  possible 
at  all.  It  seems  unreasonable,  unlikely,  if  not  impossible. 
But  as  soon  as  the  full  meaning  of  God's  presence  dawns 
upon  our  minds,  it  puts  a  different  aspect  on  the  matter. 
We  begin  to  see  reality  in  the  significant  words  of  Paul, 
"In  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being."  If  God 
■is  a  pervasive  spiritual  presence,  enfolding  our  lives  in 
the  vast  ocean  of  his  life — the  real  environment  in  which 
the  human  spirit  dwells — then  is  it  not  just  as  reasonable 
to  believe  that  we  can  draw  from  that  environment  health, 
help,  and  power,  as  do  the  plants  from  the  soil?  Granted 
a  Comrade  God  who  is  near,  a  personal  Spirit  of  Efficient 
Good  Will,  a  pervasive  presence  penetrating  our  very 
atmosphere,  what  is  more  natural  than  to  believe  that  he 
is  willing  and  able  to  help  us?  Prayer  then  becomes  as 
natural  as  breathing,  and  trust,  the  normal  attitude  of  life. 

The  silent  nearness  of  this  pervasive  presence  seems 
to  make  many  men  as  oblivious  to  him  as  the  fish  doubt- 
less are  to  the  water,  or  the  birds  to  the  air,  the  medium 
in  which  they  live.  The  very  simplicity  of  our  close  re- 
lationship with  God  baffles  us  sometimes,  and  we  conjure 

20 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

up  doubts  because  the  truth  seems  too  easy.  Unless  truth 
is  subtle  and  inscrutable,  some  folks  distrust  it.  So  some 
philosophers  have  woven  a  tangled  web,  involving  human 
freedom  and  divine  providence,  which  puzzles  more  than 
it  reveals.  The  insight  of  the  great  poets  is  clearer  than 
that  of  these  philosophers.  The  mystery  is  made  simple 
in  these  lines  of  Sidney  Lanier,  as  he  describes  his  own 
experience  of  resting  in  and  trusting  the  greatness  of 
God: 

"Oh,  what  is  abroad  in  the  marsh  and  the  terminal  sea? 
Somehow  my  soul  seems  suddenly  free 
From  the  weighing  of  fate  and  the  sad  discussion  of  sin, 
By  the  length  and   the   breadth   and  the   sweep   of  the 
marshes  of  Glynn. 

Ye  marshes,  how  candid  and  simple  and  nothing-with- 
holding and  free 

Ye  publish  yourselves  to  the  sky  and  offer  yourselves  to 
the  sea ! 

Tolerant  plains,  that  suffer  the  sea  and  the  rains  and  the 
sun, 

Ye  spread  and  span  like  the  catholic  man  who  hath 
mightily  won 

God  out  of  knowledge  and  good  out  of  infinite  pain, 

And  sight  out  of  blindness  and  purity  out  of  a  stain. 

As  the  marsh-hen  secretly  builds  on  the  watery  sod. 
Behold  I  will  build  me  a  nest  on  the  greatness  of  God : 
I  will  fly  in  the  greatness  of  God,  as  the  marsh-hen  flies 
In  the  freedom  that  fills  all  the  space  'twixt  the  marsh 

and  the  skies : 
By  so  many  roots  as  the  marsh-grass  sends  in  the  sod, 
I  will  heartily  lay  me  a-hold  on  the  greatness  of  God: 

21 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Oh,  like  to  the  greatness  of  God  is  the  greatness  within 
The  range  of  the  marshes,  the  liberal  marshes  of  Glynn."^ 

Clearly,  God  has  granted  great  powers  to  us  men.  The 
human  consciousness,  the  climax  of  the  vast  evolution, 
has  won  colossal  triumphs.  To  be  sure,  God  has  set 
rather  rigid  limits,  in  the  constitution  of  our  finite  nature, 
which  we  may  not  pass  and  live.  But  within  these  physical 
and  psychical  limits,  human  freedom  is  broad  and  un- 
trammeled,  "In  the  freedom  that  fills  all  the  space  'twixt 
the  marsh  and  the  skies."  Yet  with  all  our  ambitious  soar- 
ing, we  never  escape  from  the  living  God.  He  is  our 
environment.  We  are  subject  to  his  kindly  laws.  We 
still  must  "fly  in  the  greatness  of  God."  Surely  if  we 
"heartily  lay  us  a-hold  on  the  greatness  of  God,"  his  Good 
Will  is  our  efficient  and  immediate  help,  his  infinite  sources 
of  strength  are  at  our  elbow.  The  only  uncertainty  in  this 
comradeship  is  the  measure  of  our  faith  which  receives 
his  co-working  power. 

God  is  our  refuge  and  strength, 

A  very  present  help  in  trouble. 

Therefore  will  we  not  fear,  though  the  earth  do 

change, 
And  though  the  mountains   be   shaken   into  the 

heart  of  the  seas; 
Though  the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be  troubled, 
Though  the  mountains  tremble  with  the  swelling 

thereof. 
There  is  a  river,  the  streams  whereof  make  glad 

the  city  of  God, 
The  holv  place  of  the  tabernacles  of  the  Most 

High.' 


1  "The  Marshes  of  Glynn. 


22 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

God  is   in  the  midst   of   her;   she   shall  not  be 

moved : 
God  will  help  her,  and  that  right  early. 
The  nations  raged,  the  kingdoms  were  moved : 
He  uttered  his  voice,  the  earth  melted. 
Jehovah  of  hosts  is  with  us; 
The  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge. 

— ^Psalm  46 : 1-7. 

Does  God  Share  in  the  Making  of  History  f 

The  earth  is  Jehovah's,  and  the  fulness  thereof; 
The  world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein. 

— Psalm  24: 1. 

"Dead  are  all  the  gods,"  cried  Nietzsche,  "now  let  the 
Superman  live !"  This,  in  spite  of  the  pious  camouflage 
of  the  Kaiser,  is  the  spirit  of  Prussianism.  With  its  in- 
human atrocities,  its  practical  atheism,  it  throws  its  chal- 
lenge in  the  face  of  God.  It  acknowledges  for  itself  no 
moral  law,  and  proclaims  only  a  religion  of  force.  "Since 
we  have  the  force,  we  have  not  to  seek  reasons,"  wrote 
Von  Tannenburg  in  his  book,  "Grossdeutschland,"  pub- 
lished in  191 1,  three  years  before  the  war.  The  world  is 
watching  now  to  see  the  living  God  accept  the  challenge. 
We  shall  see,  before  long,  whether  the  brute  struggle  for 
existence,  and  the  survival  of  the  mightiest,  is  all  there 
is  to  history,  or  whether  right  makes  might,  backed  by  a 
righteous  God. 

Christianity  very  evidently  assures  us  that  God  does 
have  a  share  in  the  making  of  history.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  life  of  the  nations  is  only  a  mechanical 
puppet-show,  with  an  invisible  God  pulling  the  wires  from 
behind  the  scenes,  and  forcing  the  world  to  a  life  of  con- 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

tinuous  slavery.  God's  hand  in  history  is  not  the  mailed 
fist.  He  is  no  Prussian  autocrat,  but  a  Comrade  God. 
Within  the  constitutional  limits  set  by  his  laws  of  nature, 
he  gives  us  freedom — nations  as  v^ell  as  men.  There  is 
no  godless  history.  From  the  first  emergence  from  prime- 
val chaos  to  the  present  hour,  God  has  been  in  it  all;  not 
responsible  for  it  all,  to  be  sure,  but  permissive  of  it  all. 
The  great  trends  of  human  progress  have  evidently 
been  according  to  his  will,  for  they  accord  with  his 
nature.  The  cross  currents  in  the  stream,  and  the  eddies, 
maelstroms,  and  stagnant  pools  have  been  due  to  the  con- 
flicting wills  of  men.  Within  the  scope  of  the  freedom 
God  has  given,  necessary  to  the  moral  development  of 
the  race,  men  and  nations  have  used  their  prerogatives, 
even  in  opposition  to  God's  will,  often  in  open  rebellion. 
With  devilish  cruelty  and  satanic  wickedness,  the  brutal 
nations  that  are  slow  in  getting  civilized  have  again  and 
again  wreaked  their  vengeance  upon  the  world,  through 
the  barbarous  mediums  of  war  and  slavery,  social  injus- 
tice and  civic  oppression.  The  brute  instincts  have  been 
hard  to  eradicate.  The  Christian  spirit  has  had  a  hard 
time,  and  a  ponderously  slow  task,  overcoming  the  im- 
pulses which  hark  back  to  the  jungle.  These  impulses 
are  deeply  rooted  in  human  nature.  Human  nature  can 
be  changed.  It  has  always  been  changing,  else  we  should 
all  be  savage  brutes  today ;  but  it  takes  centuries  of  moral 
evolution  for  God  to  work  it  out.  We  should  hardly  wish 
it  otherwise,  for  if  God  had  forced  the  issue  and  speeded 
up  the  process,  it  would  have  been  at  the  cost  of  our  free- 
dom. Autocracy  in  the  cosmos  would  have  been  efficient 
and  speedy,  as  well  as  benevolent,  but  it  would  have  been 
fatal  to  a  free  humanity.    God  did  not  compel  the  nations 

24 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

to  be  good.  It  would  have  defeated  its  own  purpose. 
Moral  character  won  by  force  would  no  longer  be  moral 
character.  It  would  be  only  a  servile  yielding  to  force. 
When  the  force  should  be  removed,  the  servile  nature 
would  remain.  Xot  compulsion  from  without,  nor  un- 
tamed impulse  within,  but  cbnscience,  ruled  by  ideals, 
must  control  conduct.  Yes,  the  hand  of  God  is  always  in 
history,  using  not  brute  force  but  moral  suasion,  the 
powerful  dynamic  of  eternal  right  and  justice. 

"Keep  heart  O  comrade  !   God  may  be  delayed 
By  evil,  but  he  suffers  no  defeat. 
God  is  not  foiled ;  the  drift  of  the  world  Will 
Is  stronger  than  all  wrong." 

— Whitman. 

The  Cyclic  Course  of  Human  Progress 

The  above  explains  why  human  progress  through  the 
centuries  has  been  cyclic  in  its  character.  It  has  not  been 
a  steady  forward  march.  It  has  had  too  many  ups  and 
downs.  But  with  all  its  ups  and  downs,  it  has  been  going 
forward,  with  a  cyclic  movement,  like  the  progress  of  a 
wheel.  That  the  human  race  has  made  great  progress, 
no  one  questions,  except  people  who  have  not  read  history. 
People  who  do  not  read  or  study  have  so  short  a  perspec- 
tive that  they  often  see  only  the  sporadic,  downward, 
backward  movements ;  so  they  debate  the  question,  "Is  the 
world  getting  better  or  worse?"  In  their  disappointments 
they  see  the  world  not  going  their  way,  so  they  assume 
it  is  not  going  God's  way,  or  that  God  has  lost  his  grip 
on  the  helm.  If  they  had  more  faith  in  God  they  would 
know  that  in  the  long  run  God  wins.    The  relentless  law 

25 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  the  harvest  holds  for  nations  and  races  as  well  as  in- 
dividuals: ''Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap"  (Gal.  6:7) — which  is  the  scriptural  way  of  stating 
a  scientific  law,  the  fundamental  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
a  law  equally  binding  in  physics  and  in  morals. 

Vast  progress  has  unquestionably  been  made  in  human 
history,  from  the  prehistoric  cave-man  to  the  Christian 
citizenship  of  today.  Intellectually,  socially,  morally,  the 
race  has  made  great  gains.  We  do  well  to  ask  what  has 
caused  this  progress.  Has  it  been  due  to  evolutionary 
forces,  blind  cosmic  forces?  Has  it  been  due  to  the  in- 
teraction of  physical  and  natural  laws;  or  to  an  inner 
intelligence  within  these  laws?  Has  it  been  due  to  the 
great  men  of  the  race,  as  Carlyle  taught ;  or  to  mass  move- 
ments of  men?  Has  it  been  due  to  economic  pressure; 
or  to  geographical  location,  as  some  specialists  assert? 
Yes,  to  all  of  these  cooperating  causes,  with  the  living 
God  working  through  them  all.  Whatever  your  theory 
of  history,  this  fact  must  be  recognized:  Progress  is  the 
will  of  God.  Whittier  was  profoundly  right  when  he 
wrote : 

"But  life  shall  on  and  upward  go: 
The  eternal  step  of  Progress  beats 
To  that  great  anthem,  calm  and  slow, 
Which  God  repeats.  .  .  . 

God  works  in  all  things;  all  obey 
His  first  propulsion  from  the  night. 
Wake  thou  and  watch !  the  world  is  gray 
With  morning  light !" 

Thus  declares  the  Christian.  Whatever  be  the  present 
discouragement,  or  the  temporary  defeat  of  the  forces  of 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

righteousness,  the  Christian,  with  his  absolute  confidence 
in  God  and  his  certainty  of  the  final  victory,  never  loses 
his  grip.  There  are  strategic  retreats,  there  may  be  seri- 
ous setbacks,  but  there  cannot  be  ultimate  failure,  for  the 
eternal  God. 

Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Remove  the 
mitre,  and  take  off  the  crown;  this  shall  be  no 
more  the  same ;  exalt  that  which  is  low,  and  abase 
that  which  is  high.  I  will  overturn,  overturn, 
overturn  it  .  .  .  until  he  come  whose  right  it  is; 
and  I  will  give  it  him. — Ezek.  21 :  26,  2y. 

Democracy:  The  Great  Trend  of  God's  Will 

Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land  unto  all 
the  inhabitants  thereof. — Lev.  25 :  10. 

Tennyson  touches  a  high  note  of  faith  when  he  declares, 

"I  doubt  not  thro'  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs." 

But  he  shows  not  merely  faith,  but  discernment  in  past 
history.  The  history  of  life,  through  its  aeons  of  upward 
climbing,  shows  the  plain  purpose  of  God  in  it  all. 
Through  millions  of  years  of  patient  development,  through 
the  many  stages  of  sentient,  struggling,  ascending  forms 
of  life,  the  obvious  goal,  in  the  purpose  of  God,  was  a 
self-controlled  man  in  a  self-governed  state.  The  more 
you  examine  the  facts  of  evolution  and  of  history,  the 
greater  your  respect  for  this  climax  of  creation,  and  the 
more  profoundly  you  reverence  the  God  who  could  set 
so  high  a  goal  from  such  low  beginnings,  and  ultimately 
work  out  his  will. 

27 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Certain  it  is  that  the  struggle  of  humanity  for  freedom 
and  for  civil  rights  is  the  great  throbbing  heart  of  history. 
Our  most  real  progress  has  not  been  in  wealth,  resources, 
military  forces,  or  national  power.  These  are  relatively 
superficial,  and  usually  temporary.  That  has  been  a  sham 
progress  which  has  not  been  progress  in  democracy,  the 
outcome  of  God's  faith  in  humanity.  Permanent  human 
progress  must  be  found  in  the  common  man's  chance  to 
live  his  life,  to  speak  his  mother  tongue,  to  make  his  own 
home,  to  do  his  own  work,  and  support  his  own  family, 
while  together  they  grow  Christian  character  and  enjoy 
an  untrammeled  life  of  moral  opportunity  and  civil  lib- 
erty. Progress  was  slow,  of  course,  for  many  centuries, 
while  men  were  learning  the  hard  lesson  of  self-control 
and  the  conquest  of  brute  impulse ;  but  through  the  Chris- 
tian era  we  may  note  the  oncoming  strides  of  the  democ- 
racy of  God.  In  the  great  way-marks  of  human  progress 
we  may  see  revealed  this  great  unconquerable  trend  of 
God's  will. 

"Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land,  unto  all  the  in- 
habitants thereof,"  is  the  slogan  which  for  centuries  has 
inspired  this  great  movement.  Naturally  these  words  are 
most  sacred  to  Americans,  because  they  were  cast  on  the 
Liberty  Bell  which  first  rang  out  the  tidings  of  our  in- 
dependence. We  may  well  take  them  as  the  true  expres- 
sion of  the  divine  will  for  all  the  world  of  men.  Even 
among  the  Hebrews,  to  whom  these  words  first  came,  the 
Year  of  Jubilee  was  never  fully  observed.  It  was  a  dream 
left  unfulfilled.  Among  all  nations  this  longing  for  civil 
liberty  remained  unrealized  for  many  centuries.  The 
Greek  republic  was  a  farce,  while  four-fifths  of  the  peo- 
ple were  slaves.     Rome  was  no  better.     There  was  no 

28 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

democracy;  citizenship  was  only  for  the  few.  As  late 
as  200  A.  D.,  three-fourths  in  Rome  were  slaves.  It  is 
hard  for  us  to  think  that  human  slavery  lasted  in  England 
until  1833  and  in  our  own  country  until  1863.  The  long 
struggle  for  freedom,  for  personal,  civil,  and  religious 
liberty,  has  been  both  the  pathos  and  the  slow  triumph  of 
history.  The  custom  of  trial  by  jury,  in  early  Saxon 
England,  was  a  long  step  out  of  serfdom;  but  the  first 
great  gain  for  human  rights  was  wrested  from  autocracy 
in  121 5  at  Runnymede,  when  the  Magna  Charta  laid  the 
solid  foundation  for  Anglo-Saxon  liberties.  This  charter 
provided  that  no  freeman  should  be  imprisoned,  deprived 
of  property  or  liberty,  outlawed  or  exiled,  tried  or  con- 
demned, but  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers;  and  no 
taxes  could  thereafter  be  levied  without  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

Under  Plantagenet  rule,  to  be  sure,  there  was  but 
limited  freedom,  and  in  fact  democracy  was  hardly  made  a 
serious  experiment  until  1776,  when  our  Declaration  of 
Independence,  thanks  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  gave  definite 
and  bold  expression  to  the  claims  of  the  common  citizen. 
Freedom-loving  France  soon  followed  our  example,  and 
all  South  America  soon  after,  at  least  in  form.  Mean- 
while in  England  and  her  self-governing  dependencies, 
Canada,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  South  Africa,  the 
most  genuine  social  democracy  has  been  developed,  though 
nominally  under  a  king.  The  great  trend  is  manifest  in 
all  continents.  Japan  adopted  a  free  constitution  like 
England's  in  1891.  Italy  has  long  been  the  people's  land. 
Portugal  has  been  a  republic  since  1910  and  the  Chinese 
Republic  amazed  the  world  in  1913;  and  when  last  year 
the  Russian  revolution  unseated  the  Romanoffs  and  added 

29 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

one-seventh  of  the  world  to  the  ranks  of  democracies,  we 
thought  history  was  making  fast.  Today  the  world  map 
shows  few  dark  spots  now  held  under  tyranny  except  in 
middle  Europe,  where  the  middle  ages  still  hold  sway  and 
where  Prussian  arrogance  still  defies  the  most  obvious 
trend  of  the  centuries. 

A  self-controlled  man  in  a  self-governed  state,  this  is 
the  high  objective  of  history.  Such  marvelous  strides 
have  been  already  made  toward  making  this  trend  uni- 
versal, it  is  hard  to  deny  that  God  has  been  back  of  the 
movement.  We  find  Emerson  sensing  this  fact  two  gen- 
erations ago,  when  he  wrote  in  his  "Boston  Hymn": 

"God  said,  I  am  tired  of  kings,  I  suffer  them  no  more. 
Up  to  my  ear  the  morning  brings  the  outrage  of  the  poor. 
Think  ye  I  made  this  ball  a  field  of  havoc  and  war. 
Where  tyrants  great  and  tyrants  small  might  harry  the 
weak  and  poor  ? 

My  angel — his  name  is  Freedom — choose  him  to  be  your 

king; 
He  shall  cut  pathways  east  and  west,  and  fend  you  with 

his  wing. 
I  will  have  never  a  noble,  no  lineage  counted  great. 
Fishers  and  choppers  and  ploughmen  shall  constitute  a 

state !" 

God's  Providence  at  Crisis  Times 

This  story  of  human  progress,  at  certain  points  of  sharp 
crisis,  reveals  either  some  very  dramatic  coincidences  or 
the  guidance  of  God  in  crucial  events.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment constantly  suggests  the  hand  of  God  in  Hebrew 
history.    Its  ancient  writers  interpret  history  as  a  partner- 

30 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

ship  of  divine  and  human  wills.  We  see  God  through  it 
all.  Surely  the  persistence  and  influence  of  that  wonder- 
ful race  do  credit  to  such  faith  in  God's  leadership.  We 
need  to  have  all  history  thus  interpreted,  from  the  view- 
point of  God's  share  in  it.  Usually  his  hand  has  been 
unobtrusive,  but  at  crucial  points  we  may  often  discover 
it.  For  instance,  when  Xerxes  in  480  B.  C,  with  his  navy 
of  1,000  ships,  threatened  Greek  civilization  at  the  battle 
of  Salamis,  how  can  we  account  for  the  issue?  What 
saved  Europe  from  those  Asiatic  hordes?  Themistocles 
with  his  180  little  boats  surely  needed  divine  aid,  and  the 
future  welfare  of  the  race  as  well  demanded  it.  We  are 
told  so  slight  an  occurrence  as  the  cackling  of  geese  once 
saved  Rome;  likewise  that  a  certain  Scotch  garrison  was 
fortunately  aroused  by  the  outcry  of  an  invading  soldier 
in  the  darkness,  when  merely  stung  by  a  thistle !  The 
thistle  was  thereupon  given  a  place  upon  the  Scottish  coat 
of  arms  to  perpetuate  the  national  thanksgiving.  These 
events  were  no  more  insignificant  than  the  sudden  flight 
of  pigeons  which  turned  the  course  of  Columbus  on  his 
original  voyage  of  discovery.  But  just  because  those 
pigeons  turned  southwest,  toward  the  Bahamas  instead 
of  Florida,  Columbus  was  deflected  from  his  steady  due 
west  course,  and  thus  North  America  was  saved  from  the 
curse  of  Spanish  misrule. 

One  of  the  most  striking  stories  of  the  hand  of  God 
in  history  which  the  Old  Testament  gives  us  is  the  ac- 
count of  the  sudden  retreat  of  Sennacherib,  the  powerful 
king  of  Assyria.  This  world  conqueror,  with  Prussian 
morals  and  ideals,  after  uniform  success  in  the  north 
and  east,  had  decided  to  annex  little  Palestine  to  his 
great  empire.     It  was  in  the  reign  of  King  Hezekiah,  a 

31 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

man  of  devout  and  worthy  life.  But  the  weakness  of  the 
Jews  before  such  a  mighty  foe  was  apparent.  The  King 
of  Assyria  boastfully  demanded  the  surrender  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  waited  for  an  easy  victory.  His  only  opposi- 
tion was  the  prayer  of  a  frightened  king  and  people,  and 
the  courage  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  who  flung  in  his  face 
the  challenge  of  his  faith  in  Jehovah.  Apparently  a  sud- 
den pestilence  attacked  the  Assyrians  and  they  fled  in 
fearful  panic.  Contemporary  records  of  the  Assyrians 
confirm  the  fact. 

Then  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  sent  to  Hezekiah, 
saying.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel, 
Whereas  thou  hast  prayed  to  me  against  Sen- 
nacherib king  of  Assyria,  I  have  heard  thee. 
This  is  the  word  that  Jehovah  hath  spoken  con- 
cerning him.  .  .  .  But  I  know  thy  sitting  down, 
and  thy  going  out,  and  thy  coming  in,  and  thy 
raging  against  me.  Because  of  thy  raging  against 
me,  and  because  thine  arrogancy  is  come  up  into 
mine  ears,  therefore  will  I  put  my  hook  in  thy 
nose,  and  my  bridle  in  thy  lips,  and  I  will  turn 
thee  back  by  the  way  by  which  thou  camest.  .  .  . 
Therefore  thus  saith  Jehovah  concerning  the  king 
of  Assyria,  He  shall  not  come  unto  this  city,  nor 
shoot  an  arrow  there,  neither  shall  he  come  before 
it  with  shield,  nor  cast  up  a  mound  against  it. 
By  the  way  that  he  came,  by  the  same  shall  he 
return,  and  he  shall  not  come  unto  this  city,  saith 
Jehovah.  For  I  will  defend  this  city  to  save  it, 
for  mine  own  sake,  and  for  my  servant  David's 
sake. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  night,  that  the  angel  of 
Jehovah  went  forth,  and  smote  in  the  camp  of  the 
32 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

Assyrians  a  hundred  fourscore  and  five  thousand : 
and  when  men  arose  early  in  the  morning,  behold, 
these  were  all  dead  bodies.  So  Sennacherib  king 
of  Assyria  departed,  and  went  and  returned,  and 
dwelt  at  Nineveh. — II  Kings  19:20,  21,  27,  28, 
32-36. 

The  Protestant  world  can  never  forget  the  rescue  of 
England  in  1588  from  the  talons  of  Philip  of  Spain.  It 
may  have  been  the  great  crisis  in  the  religious  history 
of  the  world.  It  shows  us  that  "the  race  is  not  to  the 
swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong,"  for  little  England  then 
was  weak,  and  had  a  tiny  navy,  while  Spain  was  mis- 
tress of  the  seven  seas,  and  the  proudest  monarchy  in 
the  world.  The  Invincible  Armada,  as  the  Spaniards 
called  their  fleet,  made  a  seven-mile  crescent  as  it  swept 
up  the  English  channel,  with  180  of  the  biggest  ships 
afloat.  It  was  the  most  powerful  navy  ever  yet  built. 
There  was  no  human  possibility  of  defeating  it.  But 
Queen  Elizabeth  proclaimed  the  last  Sunday  of  July  a 
day  of  prayer  for  all  England,  and  somehow  the  hand  of 
God  was  with  them.  Although  it  was  midsummer,  two 
ocean  storms  struck  the  proud  fleet,  and  the  second  of 
them  scattered  and  wrecked  scores  of  the  Spanish  men- 
of-war  and  drove  the  remnants  of  that  mighty  navy  in 
the  teeth  of  a  terrible  gale,  to  be  wrecked  miserably  on 
the  rocks  at  the  far  north  of  Scotland.  Perhaps,  you 
may  say,  it  was  a  happy  coincidence;  but  awe-struck 
England  solemnly  gave  thanks  to  God  for  his  wonderful 
help  in  that  crucial  hour. 

For  fifteen  years  God  let  Napoleon  scourge  Europe, 
Some  social  results  of  this  scourging,  though  bitter  and 
grievous  at  the  time,  were  in  the  interest  of  democracy. 

33 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

It  put  an  end  to  the  feudal  ages.  But  the  military  monarch 
who  trusted  only  in  brute  force,  regardless  of  the  rights 
of  men  and  the  welfare  of  nations,  finally  met  his  Water- 
loo. His  strength,  however,  had  really  been  broken  in 
the  Russian  campaign.  In  the  days  of  his  pride  he  had 
recklessly  flaunted  his  atheism.  He  had  ridiculed  the 
thought  of  God's  power  in  the  making  of  history.  Sar- 
castically he  said,  "God  is  always  on  the  side  of  the 
heaviest  battalions !" 

Craftily  he  selected  the  summer  time  for  his  invasion 
of  the  wintry  land  of  Russia.  But  though  it  was  only 
June  24th  when  he  crossed  the  frontier,  with  his  matchless 
army  of  600,000  seasoned  veterans — then  the  largest  invad- 
ing force  in  history,  save  that  of  Xerxes — he  arrived  at 
Moscow  September  14th,  a  deserted  capital  going  up  in 
patriotic  flames.  He  had  been  repeatedly  delayed  by  vexa- 
tious hindrances  over  which  he  had  no  control.  An  un- 
seen hand  seemed  to  hold  him  back.  He  was  prevented 
from  forcing  the  Czar  to  meet  him  in  open  battle,  until 
the  early  Russian  winter  suddenly  compelled  him  to  re- 
treat. We  cannot  vouch  for  the  date,  but  it  is  reported 
that  this  prematurely  early  blizzard  came  October  13th, 
a  month  ahead  of  expectations.  And  those  impalpable 
snow  flakes,  silently  falling  on  the  plains  of  Russia,  sealed 
the  doom  of  the  great  conqueror  and  rescued  Europe  from 
his  cruel  domination.  The  awful  story  of  that  French 
retreat  is  familiar  history;  but  perhaps  it  is  not  so  well 
known  that  when  Napoleon,  on  reaching  French  soil  once 
more,  left  behind  his  worn-out  remnant  of  an  army  and 
spurred  on  to  Paris  with  his  body-guard,  he  was  heard  to 
mutter  bitterly  to  himself,  "The  Almighty  is  too  powerful 
for  me !"    Was  it  merely  the  remorseful  awakening  of  a 

34 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

guilty  conscience?  Or  was  it  a  true  estimate  of  the 
cause  of  his  downfall?  At  any  rate,  from  that  day 
Napoleon  was  a  beaten  man,  for  he  felt  the  eternal  God 
was  against  him. 

"Careless  seems  the  great  Avenger;  history's  pages  but 

record 
One  death-grapple  in  the  darkness  'twixt  old  systems  and 

the  Word. 
Truth  forever  on  the   scaffold,  Wrong  forever   on  the 

throne — 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and,  behind  the  dim 

unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above 

his  own."^ 

Is  God  Now  Taking  a  Hand  in  History? 

Though  I  walk  in  the  midst  of  trouble,  thou  wilt 

revive  me; 
Thou   wilt   stretch   forth   thy   hand   against   the 

wrath  of  mine  enemies, 
And  thy  right  hand  will  save  me. — Psalm   138:  7. 

It  is  evident  throughout  this  chapter  that  the  writer 
believes  that  human  history  is  not  godless,  but  that  the 
God  of  nations,  whose  law  is  social  justice  and  whose 
will  is  human  progress,  has  a  definite  and  holy  purpose 
which  has  been  making  its  silent  way  through  the  mazes 
of  history,  now  speedily,  now  slowly,  but  unswervingly. 
That  holy  purpose  is  human  freedom  and  democracy;  for 
the  goal  of  creation  is  a  self-controlled  man  in  a  self- 
governed  state. 

2  Lowell,  "The  Present  Crisis." 

35 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

The  present  world  crisis  is  surely  no  exception.  The 
Christian  will  not  claim  that  God  caused  this  awful  war. 
It  is  all  too  evident  that  the  war  was  willed  upon  the 
world  by  an  ambitious,  unscrupulous,  perfectly  prepared 
nation  which  expected  speedy  success.  It  is  equally  clear 
that  the  spirit  which  made  the  war  possible  is  the  spirit 
of  selfish  materialism,  which  is  modern  paganism,  the 
spirit  which  among  all  nations  is  the  enemy  of  Christian 
idealism.  But  although  God  could  not  have  caused  this 
war  and  be  true  to  himself,  he  is  surely  using  the  scourge 
of  the  war  to  further  his  holy  purpose.  In  spite  of  the 
awful  cost  of  it,  the  world,  through  the  medium  of  this 
war,  has  already  made  more  progress  in  the  great  strug- 
gle for  civil  liberty  than  has  been  made  since  1848.  And 
it  is  likely  to  be  true,  by  the  time  this  vast  struggle  ends, 
that  its  tremendous  speeding  up  of  social  forces  will  have 
caused  such  momentum  of  progress  that  the  new  world 
that-is-to-be  will  be  more  radically  transformed  than  any 
of  us  anticipate.  With  the  breakdown  in  many  lands  of 
conservative  customs  which  have  long  blocked  progress, 
the  Spirit  of  God  now  has  a  chance. 

Not  only  is  it  significant  that  the  four  remaining  political 
tyrannies  of  the  world,  the  four  last  Czars,  are  fighting 
against  a  score  of  free  nations,  but  it  is  also  to  be  remem- 
bered that  in  all  nations  weapons  of  power  have  been  put 
in  the  hands  of  the  common  man.  That  is,  in  mobilizing 
and  equipping  such  vast  "man-power,"  the  governments 
have  created  armies  perhaps  more  powerful  than  them- 
selves. After  the  fighting  ends,  these  millions  of  citizen 
soldiers  will  have  the  power  to  determine  the  course  of 
history.  They  will  not  be  slow  to  use  their  power.  It 
will  certainly  be  a  more  democratic  world,  with  a  larger 

36 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

share  in  governing  and  in  profit-sharing  taken  by  the 
common  citizen.  The  mutual  education  these  men  are  now 
getting  in  the  trenches,  and  the  social  ideals  they  are 
developing,  will  largely  determine  whether  their  future 
activities  of  reconstruction  shall  be  selfish  or  Christian. 

We  see  then,  the  present  struggle  is  the  climax  of  the 
age-long  trend  of  history,  God's  own  holy  purpose  to  help 
all  men  win  freedom  and  democracy.  If  this  be  so,  there 
never  was  a  holier  war  or  a  nobler  cause.  How  closely 
the  present  struggle  is  linked  up  with  the  great  historic 
movement,  is  eloquently  stated  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Eng- 
land's prime  minister,  in  his  Glasgow  speech,  June  29, 
1917:  "Then  (in  the  seventeenth  century),  Europe  suf- 
fered unendurable  miseries,  but  at  the  end  of  it  humanity 
took  a  great  leap  forward  toward  the  dawn.  Then  came 
the  conflict  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  great  fight  of 
the  right  of  men  as  men,  and  Europe  again  was  drenched 
with  blood.  But  at  the  end  of  it  the  peasantry  were  free, 
and  democracy  became  a  reality.  Xow  we  are  faced  by 
the  greatest  and  grimmest  of  all — liberty,  equality,  fra- 
ternity, not  only  amongst  men  but  amongst  nations ;  great,, 
yea  small;  powerful,  yea  weak;  exalted,  yea  humblest — 
that  is  the  challenge  which  has  been  thrown  to  us.  Europe 
is  again  drenched  with  the  blood  of  its  bravest  and  best, 
but  do  not  forget  these  are  the  great  successions  of 
hallowed  causes.  They  are  the  stations  of  the  cross  on 
the  road  to  the  emancipation  of  mankind.  Let  us  endure 
as  our  fathers  did.  Every  birth  is  an  agony,  and  the 
new  world  is  born  out  of  the  agony  of  the  old  world.  My 
appeal  to  the  people  of  this  country  is  this — that  we 
should  continue  to  fight  for  the  great  goal  of  international 
right  and  international  justice,  so  that  never  again  shall 

37 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

brute   force   sit   on   the  throne   of   justice,   nor  barbaric 
strength  wield  the  scepter  of  right." 

It  is  as  clear  as  daylight  now  that  this  is  the  climax 
of  the  great  world  struggle  between  tyranny  and  democ- 
racy. The  smoke  and  haze  of  the  early  years  of  the  war 
have  cleared  away.  If  it  proves  to  be  true  that  the  cause 
of  human  liberty  is  to  make  great  progress,  not  only  in 
Russia  and  Palestine  but  also  in  Bohemia  and  the  other 
Slavic  nations,  and,  even,  if  God  wills,  in  Austria  and 
Germany  itself;  and  if  in  the  nations  of  the  Entente 
Alliance  a  new  idealism  shall  permanently  reign,  with 
fuller  appreciation  of  their  priceless  liberties;  then  it 
will  hardly  be  questioned  by  reasonable  men  that  God  has 
been  taking  an  active  hand  in  the  making  of  history. 

Thy  kingdom  come.     Thy  will  be  done,  as  in 
heaven,  so  on  earth. — Matt.  6:  lo. 

What  Kind  of  a  God  is  zvith  the  Kaiser f 

Why  do  the  nations  rage, 

And  the  peoples  meditate  a  vain  thing? 

— Psalm  2:1. 

''Gott  Mit  Uns"  has  so  long  been  the  motto  of  the 
House  of  Hohenzollern  that  the  Kaiser  seems  to  think 
he  has  annexed  the  Deity  to  the  General  Staff  of  the 
German  Army !  After  every  superficial  military  gain  he 
issues  a  royal  manifesto,  in  which  he  congratulates  "the 
German  God"  for  his  part  in  the  "victory"  !  On  every 
available  occasion  he  piously  assures  his  armies  that 
"Gott"  is  with  them.  "Forward  with  Gott"  is  the  slogan 
which  he  insidiously  suggests  as  their  battle-cry  of  vic- 
tory. 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

Some  of  us  are  wondering  just  what  sort  of  a  god  this 
"Deutscher  Gott"  might  be.  What  would  be  the  personal 
character  of  a  deity  who  would  take  orders  from  this 
crime-stained  Kaiser?  Who  is  their  "Gott"  and  what  is 
he  like?  He  is  certainly  not  like  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
Christ  of  sympathy,  justice,  and  good  will — yet  the  God 
of  Christendom  is  like  Jesus  Christ. 

The  answer  is  rather  simple.  You  may  hear  it,  in 
brazen  accents,  from  the  leaders  of  German  thought  today. 
The  Kaiser's  "Gott"  is  a  god  of  battles,  a  god  of  hosts, 
a  mighty  tribal  deity  that  incarnates  force  and  personifies 
the  world-trampling  spirit  of  colossal  German  conceit.  He 
is  a  brutal  god.  He  is  not  our  Heavenly  Father.  He 
is  not  the  God  of  the  New  Testament.  He  is  not  inter- 
ested in  the  brotherhood  of  Man.  His  only  care  is  for 
the  "Superman,"  der  Deutscher  Mann.  His  only  gospel 
is  Kultur.  His  "good  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall  be 
to  all  people"  is  simply  "Deutschland  iiber  Alles."  To 
insure  the  spread  of  this  gospel,  this  "German  Gott" 
sanctions  all  "necessary"  violations  of  international  law 
and  other  safeguards  of  civilized  warfare.  So  war  be- 
comes piracy  and  massacre.  He  winks  at  any  fright- 
fulness  which  merely  punishes  non-Germans.  He  lets 
the  Ten  Commandments  be  revoked  (for  Germans),  the 
Beatitudes  be  reversed,  and  simple  human  kindness  be- 
come obsolete.  The  German  mailed  fist,  holy  as  the 
lightning,  may  with  impunity  strike  dead  its  victims  on 
land  or  sea  or  in  the  air — men  armed  or  unarmed,  it  mat- 
ters not — women  or  defenseless  children,  it  matters  less. 
Hideous  rape,  foul  murder  in  the  dark,  and  even  human 
slavery,  are  merely  incidental  in  the  glorious  game.  It 
is  the  day!    In  the  name  of  "Gott"  go  forth  and  slay. 

39 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

What  kind  of  a  god  is  such  a  god?  There  is  no  such 
person.  He  is  only  a  figment  of  the  disordered  brain  of 
a  war-mad  people  and  a  coterie  of  wilful  war-lords,  who 
have  conjured  up  a  deity  of  like  passions  with  them- 
selves. Pagans  in  all  history  have  done  the  same.  Thor 
and  Woden,  Jupiter  and  Mars,  Zeus,  Dagon,  Bel  and 
Moloch — ^the  list  would  be  a  long  one.  A  patronizing 
tribal  god  is  ever  the  boldest  work  of  man.  Does  not  the 
modern  "Gott"  of  Potsdam  bear  the  closest  resemblance 
to  his  ancestral  forbear,  the  ancient  Thor  ?  It  is  the  frank 
boast  of  certain  German  patriots  today.  Surely  if  you 
accept  their  testimony,  he  is  more  like  Milton's  Satan 
than  the  Christian's  God. 

Once  a  greater  than  the  Kaiser,  one  whose  humility 
matched  his  moral  grandeur,  was  accosted  by  a  pious 
friend  in  dark  wartime:  "Mr.  Lincoln,  the  Lord  is  with 
us.  God  is  surely  on  our  side  in  this  great  conflict."  The 
great  leader  grew  suddenly  grave  as  he  quietly  replied, 
*T  am  less  anxious,  friend,  to  know  that  the  Lord  is  on 
otir  side,  than  I  am  to  make  sure  that  we  are  on  the 
Lord's  side." 

One  thing  is  morally  certain :  The  Lord  of  all  the  earth, 
the  God  of  humanity,  can  never  be  drafted  for  service 
under  the  eagles  of  Germany  or  any  other  flag.  He  can- 
not be  dragooned  to  back  up  any  king's  war  policy.  Much 
less  can  his  moral  principles  be  trailed  in  the  dust  of  the 
chariot  wheels  of  a  hell-bent  general  staff.  The  Eternal 
God  will  select  his  own  place  in  this  war.  No  race  can 
monopolize  him.  No  people  can  corner  him.  No  nation 
can  annex  or  naturalize  him.  And  no  monarch,  however 
arrogant  or  powerful,  can  thwart  his  final  justice.  Ulti- 
mately his  kingdom  will  come,  his  will  be  done. 

40 


GOD  IN  HUMAN  LIFE  AND  HISTORY 

Where  then  will  God  be  found,  in  this  and  every  war? 
He  casts  in  his  mighty  moral  power  with  .every  nation 
that  seeks  to  do  his  will,  whose  policy  reflects  his  moral 
character.  His  blessing  can  come  only  to  those  wha 
recognize  the  rights  of  fellowmen,  whose  aim  is  social 
justice  and  fair  play,  and  whose  methods  are  decently 
humane.  The  God  of  Eternal  Pity  goes  with  the  Red 
Cross  into  every  battle  zone.  The  God  of  Divine  Sym- 
pathy shares  every  Calvary  with  a  nation  which  sacrifices 
life  and  treasure  in  a  great  unselfish  struggle  to  make  a 
better  world. 

Is  God  with  us?  Let  the  men  of  every  nation  ask  it 
of  their  own  consciences.  But  let  them  not  dare  claim  it, 
unless  they  are  fighting  zuith  God  in  the  great  age-long 
struggle  for  human  freedom  and  human  brotherhood,  for 
a  living  chance  for  the  common  man,  for  the  triumph 
of  love,  sympathy,  and  pity  over  brute  force,  hate,  and 
greed,  for  the  final  victory  of  social  justice,  human 
kindness,  and  international  good  will. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

To  what  extent  do  you  trust  God's  help  in  your  personal 
life?  In  Sidney  Lanier's  great  poem,  just  what  did  he 
mean  by  the  line,  'T  w411  heartily  lay  me  a-hold  on  the 
greatness  of  God?" 

Do  you  think  God  really  has  a  share  in  the  making  of 
history?  How  does  the  freedom  of  choice  he  has  given 
men  sometimes  interfere  with  his  purpose  in  history? 
Puncture  the  faithless  fallacy:  ''Human  nature  can't  be 
changed !"  Why  doesn't  God  use  force  in  compelling  his- 
tory to  go  his  way? 

How  do  you  explain  the  ups  and  downs  and  the  slow 
41 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

progress  in  human  history  ?  Where  do  Christians  get  their 
confident  faith  that  righteousness  will  in  the  long  run 
triumph  ? 

How  does  the  long  struggle  for  human  freedom  show 
the  trend  of  God's  will  ?  What  is  the  truest  test  of  human 
progress?  Trace  the  "oncoming  strides  of  the  democracy 
of  God."  How  can  you  account  for  the  wonderful  in- 
crease in  democratic  government  in  the  world,  in  the  last 
generation?    What's  the  use  of  kings? 

Mention  some  striking  "coincidences"  which  look  like 
God's  providential  help  in  crisis  times  in  history. 

Can  you  see  in  the  present  world  crisis  a  certain  climax 
in  human  history?  What  do  you  think  God  is  doing  about 
it?  What  great  good  can  you  see  coming  out  of  this 
war?  How  has  your  faith  helped  you  to  understand  the 
war  and  face  it  courageously? 

How  does  the  Prussian  God  compare  with  the  Father- 
God  of  Jesus?  What  is  the  real  test  of  whether  God  is 
with  us  ? 


42 


CHAPTER  III 

DISCOVERING  GOD  IN  THE  LAWS 
OF  LIFE 

Nature  the  Beautiful  Body  of  God 

Within  all  the  life  of  nature  God  is  the  soul.  His 
Spirit  is  the  continuous  Creator  and  sustainer  of  life.  The 
earth  with  its  miracle  of  changing  seasons  and  marvel 
of  renewing  life  is  his  beautiful  body.  "Who  can  look 
on  nature,"  asks  St.  Hilary  in  the  fourth  century,  "and 
not  see  God?"  "The  wonders  of  the  visible  creation  are 
the  footprints  of  our  Creator;  himself  as  yet  we  cannot 
see,  but  we  are  on  the  road  that  leads  to  vision,  when  we 
admire  him  in  all  things  that  he  has  made."  Thus  spoke 
Gregory  in  the  sixth  century.  Here  we  discover  an  almost 
universal  belief  of  the  human  heart,  that  through  the 
love  of  nature  we  may  find  our  way  to  God.  It  is  not  all 
of  religion;  but  for  many  it  is  the  beginning  of  religion. 
In  all  great  religions  you  may  find  it.  The  seers  and  poets, 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  agree  on  this  doctrine. 
Greek  and  Latin  classics  reveal  the  same  faith.  The 
sacred  books  of  India  and  Persia  and  Egypt  share  with 
us  the  universal  touch  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin. 
Even  in  the  dim  distance  of  human  beginnings  we  find 
the  sun-myths,  the  star-myths,  the  myths  of  the  storm,  the 
mountains,  the  winds,  and  the  rivers,  reminding  us  that 
"through  Nature  to  God"  was  the  earliest  ladder  by  which 

43 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

the  religious  spirit  of  humanity  began  to  climb  its  way 
to  heaven. 

We  cannot  wonder  that  from  time  to  time  ancient  men 
have  worshiped  the  forces  of  nature,  thinking  they  had 
groped  their  way  to  ultimate  reality  and  power.  Though 
in  all  the  ages  nature  has  led  men  to  God,  it  needed  the 
vision  of  a  purer  faith  to  discover  within  these  forces, 
within  the  beautiful  garment  of  visible  life,  the  personal 
God,  active  as  the  indwelling  power  which  directly  causes 
every  form  of  life. 

Bless  Jehovah,  O  my  soul. 

O  Jehovah  my  God,  thou  art  very  great; 

Thou  art  clothed  with  honor  and  majesty. 

Who  coverest  thyself  with  light  as  with  a  gar- 
ment; 

Who  stretchest  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain ; 

Who  layeth  the  beams  of  his  chambers  in  the 
waters ; 

Who  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariot ; 

Who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind; 

Who  maketh  winds  his  messengers; 

Flames  of  fire  his  ministers; 

Who  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 

That  it  should  not  be  moved  for  ever. 

Thou  coveredst  it  with  the  deep  as  with  a  vesture ; 

The  waters  stood  above  the  mountains. 

At  thy  rebuke  they  fled; 

At  the  voice  of  thy  thunder  they  hasted  away 

(The  mountains  rose,  the  valleys  sank  down) 

Unto   the  place   which   thou   hadst   founded   for 
them. 

Thou  hast  set  a  bound  that  they  may  not  pass 
over; 

44 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

That  they  turn  not  again  to  cover  the  earth. 

He  sendeth  forth  springs  into  the  valleys; 

They  run  among  the  mountains ; 

They  give  drink  to  every  beast  of  the  field; 

The  wild  asses  quench  their  thirst. 

By  them  the  birds   of  the   heavens   have  their 

habitation ; 
They  sing  among  the  branches. 
He  watereth  the  mountains  from  his  chambers: 
The  earth  is  filled  with  the  fruit  of  thy  works. 
He  causeth  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle, 
And  herb  for  the  service  of  man; 
That  he  may  bring  forth  food  out  of  the  earth. 

— ^Psalm   104:  I -14. 

Some  of  the  grandest  passages  in  the  writings  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  reflect  this  faith  in  the  presence  of  God 
in  all  nature.  The  mind  of  Jesus,  so  sympathetic  with  all 
the  natural  life  of  the  fields  and  the  mountains,  also  re- 
veals it.  The  great  poets  who  have  had  clearest  insight 
teach  us  of  the  indwelling  God  in  the  visible  world,  none 
perhaps  more  noticeably  than  Wordsworth.  The  charm 
and  mystic  spell  of  the  beautiful  English  lake  country 
where  he  spent  his  days  is  revealed  distinctly  in  many  of 
his  odes  and  sonnets.  His  whole  life  seems  to  have  been 
hallowed  by  a  vivid,  vital  feeling  of  God's  nearness.  His 
confession  of  faith  in  the  indwelling  God  who  is  the  very 
soul  of  nature  is  most  beautifully  expressed  in  these  lines : 

"I  have  felt 
A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts ;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 

45 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air, 

And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man: 

A  motion  and  a  spirit,  that  impels 

All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 

And  rolls  through  all  things.     Therefore  am  I  still 

A  lover  of  the  meadows  and  the  woods. 

And  mountains;  and  of  all  that  we  behold 

From  this  green  earth;  of  all  the  mighty  world 

Of  eye  and  ear — both  what  they  half  create, 

And  half  perceive;  well  pleased  to  recognize 

In  Nature  and  the  language  of  the  sense. 

The  anchor  of  my  purest  thoughts,  the  nurse. 

The  guide,  the  guardian  of  my  heart,  and  soul 

Of  all  my  moral  being."^ 

The  Loivcr  and  the  Higher  Nearness 

Lest  some  should  try  to  find  in  this  divine  immanence 
in  nature  a  complete  religion,  it  may  be  well  to  introduce 
here  a  word  of  caution.  Not  far  from  here  lies  pantheism, 
which  denies  the  personality  of  God.  We  may  not  confine 
God  within  his  visible  world,  though  he  be  the  soul  of 
nature.  So  wonderful  a  worker  cannot  be  held  a  prisoner 
within  his  own  works.  He  fills  and  overflows  them. 
God's  identity  is  not  lost  in  nature. 

In  overflowing  wrath  I  hid  my  face  from  thee 
for  a  moment;  but  with  everlasting  lovingkind- 
ness  will  I  have  mercy  on  thee,  saith  Jehovah  thy 
Redeemer.  .  .  .  For  the  mountains  may  depart, 
and  the  hills  be  removed;  but  my  lovingkindness 
shall  not  depart  from  thee,  neither  shall  my  cove- 
nant of  peace  be  removed,  saith  Jehovah  that  hath 
mercy  on  thee. — Isa.  54:8,  10. 


^  "Lines  Composed  a  Few  Miles  Above  Tintem  Abbey. 

46 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

It  is  because  he  not  only  is  within  nature  but  transcends 
it,  that  we  worship  him.  The  man  who  says  he  finds  God 
in  the  fair  face  of  the  mountains  and  the  fields  and  does 
not  need  to  worship  him  in  church  is  taking  a  narrow 
view  and  finding  only  a  phase  of  God's  life.  For  such 
a  man,  Bishop  Francis  J.  McConnell  has  a  very  clear  mes- 
sage in  "The  Diviner  Immanence" :  "The  man  in  the 
fields  is  no  doubt  standing  face  to  face  with  God,  but 
is  that  a  warrant  that  he  can  read  God's  face?  The 
voices  of  nature  are  the  voices  of  God,  but  is  that  an 
assurance  that  we  understand  the  voices?  .  .  .  The  fine 
flights  of  the  poets  are  indeed  among  the  great  glories  of 
human  genius,  but  it  would  be  a  good  deal  of  a  strain  on 
our  intelligence  to  hold  that  the  poets  got  their  insight 
wholly  from  gazing  on  the  fields.  They  came  to  the  fields 
with  certain  conceptions  of  the  meaning  of  life  and  nature, 
and  they  found  in  the  landscapes  illustration  and  quick- 
ening of  conviction  and  ideal  already  held.  The  poet, 
insofar  as  he  possesses  real  insight  at  all,  gets  it  through 
a  nearness  to  God  of  the  higher  kind — the  nearness  of 
inner  sympathy.  In  bringing  men  to  that  higher  near- 
ness, Christianity  plays  a  part  which  can  be  taken  by 
nothing  else."' 

In  discovering  God  in  nature  and  in  the  laws  of  life 
we  are  discovering  a  splendid  fact.  It  will  help  us  better 
to  understand  our  world.  But  let  us  not  expect  to  stop 
here  in  our  quest.  It  would  not  permanently  satisfy  a 
searching  soul.  Our  Gospel  of  the  Incarnation  is  a 
broader  and  higher  religion  than  this.  Modern  religion, 
however,  makes  much  of  the  fact  of  God  in  the  world, 

s  Page  20. 

47 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

for  it  furnishes  the  living  link  between  a  devout  science 
and  a  thinking  faith.    Let  us  examine  it  further. 


True  Science  Essentially  Devout 

When  I  consider  thy  heavens,  the  work  of  thy 
fingers, 

The  moon  and  the   stars,   which  thou   hast  or- 
dained; 

What  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him? 

And  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  visitest  him? 

For  thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God, 

And  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honor  .  .  . 

O  Jehovah,  our  Lord, 

How  excellent  is  thy  name  in  all  the  earth ! 

—Psalm  8:3-5,  9. 

It  is  a  familiar  saying  that  "the  undevout  astronomer 
is  mad."  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  scholar  using  the 
telescope  in  tracing  the  major  laws  of  God's  external  uni- 
verse, or  the  microscope  in  searching  for  his  hidden  laws 
within,  can  forget  the  spirit  of  reverence.  Yet  sheer 
familiarity  sometimes  blinds  the  eyes  to  the  larger  mean- 
ings of  life.  And  we  must  remember  that  the  conserva- 
tive Church  has  again  and  again  been  foolishly  inhos- 
pitable to  new  discoveries  and  is  largely  to  blame  for  the 
opposition  of  early  science  to  religion.  Sometimes  the 
scientists  with  their  reverence  for  facts  were  really  more 
devout  than  the  priests  who  persecuted  them.  Many  of 
the  great  pioneers  in  scientific  discovery  have  truly  felt 
what  Kepler  the  astronomer  expressed,  "O  God,  I  think 
thy  thoughts  after  thee."  Certainly  our  modern  faith  owes 
a  vast  debt   of   gratitude  to  the   earnest   toilers   in  the 

48 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

laboratories,  who  have  patiently  probed  their  way  into 
the  unknown  and  have  investigated  millions  of  minute 
facts  in  their  relentless  search  for  truth.  The  wisest  of 
them  have  been  the  humblest.  All  of  them  have  been, 
within  their  sphere,  men  of  faith.  They  have  never  made 
progress  except  by  trusting  and  following  the  hypothesis 
which  seemed  most  reasonable  to  them.  The  head  of  that 
great  school  of  applied  science,  the  Massachusetts  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  once  said,  "Science  is  grounded  in 
faith  just  as  is  religion.  Scientific  truth,  like  religious 
truth,  consists  of  hypotheses,  never  wholly  verified,  that 
fit  the  facts  more  or  less  closely."  Surely  there  should 
be  no  conflict  between  science  and  religion.  Each  needs 
the  spirit  and  method  of  the  other,  without  which  neither 
can  do  its  best  work.  The  basis  of  modern  religion  is 
scientific.  The  highest  interpretations  of  science  are 
inevitably  religious. 

The  Blessed  Uniformity  of  Natural  Law 

The  uniformity  of  nature's  obedience  to  law  used  to  be 
the  rock  of  offence  between  science  and  religion.  On  this 
rock  many  a  man's  faith  was  wrecked,  for  the  reign  of 
law  seemed  to  make  impossible  the  claims  of  the  Church. 
Superficial  people  still  fear  the  uniformity  of  natural  law, 
because  it  seems  to  them  to  deny  God's  providence,  to 
make  prayer  fruitless,  and  almost  to  take  away  their 
Bible  and  their  God.  They  dislike  to  think  of  the  vast 
reaches  of  the  universe,  with  the  unvarying  time  schedule 
of  the  planets,  for  it  shows  them  that  they  have  an  idea 
of  God  too  small  to  fit  the  facts.  The  pathos  of  James 
Lane  Allen's  novel,  'The  Reign  of  Law'!  lies  in  the  wreck 

49 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  the  college  boy's  adolescent  faith,  just  because  he  felt 
obliged  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  evolution  which  he 
learned  in  the  laboratory.  He  thought  he  could  no  longer 
sing  the  grand  old  hymn,  "How  firm  a  foundation."  The 
only  trouble  was,  his  conception  of  God  had  not  grown  to 
keep  pace  with  his  scientific  knowledge.  Yet  true  science 
cannot  harm  true  religion,  for  all  truth  is  a  splendid  unity. 
It  is  all  the  expression  of  the  life  of  God. 

And  of  Joseph  he  said, 

Blessed  of  Jehovah  be  his  land, 

For  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew, 

And  for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath. 

And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  fruits  of  the 

sun, 
And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  growth  of 

the  moons. 
And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains. 
And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  everlasting 

hills. 
And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  earth  and  the 

fulness  thereof, 
And  the  good  will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  the  bush. 

— Deut.  33:  i3-i6a. 

Second  thought  should  convince  us  that  it  is  a  blessed 
thing  that  we  live  in  a  world  of  law.  It  may  be  unim- 
portant to  us  that  all  the  snow  crystals  that  ever  fall 
invariably  form  angles  of  60  or  120  degrees.  It  may  seem 
unimportant  that  water  should  always  freeze  at  32  degrees 
and  boil  at  212.  But  it  is  minutiae  like  these  which  go 
to  make  up  a  world  in  which  trust  and  contentment  are 
possible.     Without  such  uniformity  life  would  be  chaos. 

50 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

Nature  would  be  positively  immoral  without  law.  Worry 
would  be  the  order  of  the  day,  and  plans  for  the  future 
would  be  impossible.  Suppose  we  lived  in  a  world  of 
chance,  in  which  our  laws  of  cause  and  effect  were  not 
operative.  Suppose  we  could  never  foretell  whether 
grapes,  figs,  or  thistles  would  develop  in  the  vineyards; 
or  corn,  onions,  or  toadstools  would  grow  upon  the  corn 
stalks;  or  buckeyes,  acorns,  or  apples  in  the.  orchard? 
Suppose  the  fields  which  one  year  brought  forth  abundant, 
nourishing  food  to  sustain  life,  the  next  season  ripened 
only  poison  and  killed  men  by  the  score?  Suppose  the 
fire  in  the  locomotive  boiler  suddenly  produced  ice  in- 
stead of  steam;  or  the  mild  gasolene  explosions  in  the 
automobile  motors  began  to  work  like  the  deadly  T.  N.  T.  ? 
Such  a  world  would  speedily  tear  itself  apart  by  the  reck- 
less clash  of  lawless  forces.  It  would  travel  hell-bent 
to  perdition  and  return  to  primeval  chaos.  There  would 
simply  be  no  living  in  a  world  not  under  law.  Our 
delicate  human  organism  is  uncomfortable  when  the 
temperature  goes  up  or  down  a  petty  thirty  degrees.  A 
change  of  a  few  more  degrees  brings  serious  illness; 
while  life  itself  is  possible  only  within  a  very  narrow 
range  of  heat  and  cold.  We  are  creatures  of  habit. 
Radical  changes  always  upset  us,  sudden  surprises  often 
unnerve  us,  and  great  disappointments  and  sorrows  will 
even  unbalance  our  minds.  Our  very  constitutions  de- 
mand regularity.  Our  minds  are  routinized  and  must  have 
consistency  in  our  world.  The  only  possible  moral  order 
is  the  reign  of  law,  which  assures  us  that  an  effect  will 
faithfully  and  always  follow  the  same  cause.  It  would 
be  sheer  ingratitude  for  us  not  to  be  thankful  to  God  for 
the  blessed  uniformity  of  his  natural  law. 

51 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

All  Natural  Law  the  Expression  of  God's  Life 

The  earth  is  Jehovah's,  and  the  fulness  thereof; 

The  world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein. 

For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas, 

And  established  it  upon  the  floods. — Psalm  24 :  i,  2. 

All  natural  law  is  God's  law.  When  we  remember  that 
great  fact,  uniformity  has  no  more  terrors  for  us,  for  the 
reign  of  law  becomes  the  rule  of  God.  The  wonderful 
nicety  of  adjustment  and  the  perfection  of  function  in  the 
life  of  nature  is  a  measure  of  the  Efficient  Gobd  Will, 
whose  intelligent  purpose  has  produced  these  results.  It 
is  entirely  reasonable  to  accept  the  scientist's  "resident 
forces"  and  call  them  Almighty  God.  They  are  but  his 
creative  energy,  patiently  working  his  evolutionary  pur- 
pose, through  aeons  and  millenniums  of  upward  develop- 
ment from  star  dust  to  civilized  man.  The  whole  vast 
process  commands  our  reverence,  for  it  is  all  divine.  God 
has  always  been  working  in  and  through  it  all.  The 
laws  which  diligent  scientists  have  discovered  in  these 
natural  processes  are  simply  God's  ways  of  working.  They 
are  the  expressions  of  his  life,  his  methods  of  accom- 
plishing his  purpose. 

We  find,  then,  that  God  is  revealing  himself  constantly 
to  us  in  the  realm  of  law.  He  is  incarnate  in  law.  We 
may  find  not  only  his  wisdom  but  his  kindness  in  the 
beneficence  of  these  laws  he  has  worked  out  for  his  uni- 
verse. He  shows  us  he  is  a  God  who  can  be  trusted.. 
He  is  the  same  yesterday,  today,  and  forever.  He  is  not 
a  capricious  tyrant,  living  above  the  law.  He  is  a  moral 
being,  recognizing  natural  laws  as  the  laws  of  his  own 
nature,  his  own  life. 

52 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

How  Men  Use  and  Control  the  Laws  of  Nature 

The  essence  of  human  freedom  is  the  power  of  men 
to  project  personal  causes  into  the  world  of  natural  law. 
Intelligent  men  make  physical  laws  their  servants  and' 
compel  them  to  do  their  will.  To  be  sure,  nature  sets 
rigid  limits.  But  men  have  always  been  beating  against 
these  set  limits,  like  the  wings  of  imprisoned  eagles  against 
the  bars  of  their  cage.  Gravitation  is  a  law-abiding  force.. 
It  acts  relentlessly  and  impartially.  But  skilful  men  have 
learned  how  to  circumvent  it.  They  refuse  to  remain  its 
slave.  They  build  a  concrete  ship  which,  properly  handled, 
will  not  sink.  They  build  a  huge  cantilever  bridge,  which,, 
properly  tied  and  balanced,  will  not  fall.  They  construct 
a  water  system  which  makes  water  flow  uphill  and  down, 
in  spite  of  gravitation.  They  counteract  gravitation  by 
the  power  of  high  explosives,  and  keep  300  pounds  of 
steel  high  in  the  air  for  sixteen  minutes  while  it  travels 
seventy  miles  in  its  man-directed  orbit.  They  counteract 
gravitation  by  gasolene  motors,  and  thus  conquer  the  air 
as  an  element  in  which  humanity  may  live  and  work  and 
travel.  The  new  Curtiss  planes  can  lift  two  men  1,000 
feet  per  minute  against  the  force  of  gravitation.  Thus 
personal  forces  transcend  the  limits  set  by  simple  natural 
forces.  How  is  it  done?  Are  the  natural  laws  annulled 
or  broken?  Not  at  all.  Men  have  made  progress  by 
mastering  the  combinations  of  natural  laws.  They  have 
discovered  how  to  use  laws  reciprocally,  how  to  offset 
one  law  by  another,  how  to  use  a  higher  law  to  overcome 
the  limitations  of  a  lower.  It  is  far  truer  now  than  when 
Huxley  said  it,  that  "the  organized  and  highly  developed 
sciences  and  arts  of  the  present  day  have  endowed  man 

53 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

with  a  command  over  the  course  of  non-human  nature 
greater  than  that  once  attributed  to  the  magicians." 

In  his  remarkably  clear  discussion  of  this  thought, 
Harry  Emerson  Fosdick  says,  "The  insight  which  takes 
from  the  heart  of  religion  all  fear  of  the  reign  of  law  is 
this:  Personality,  even  in  ourselves,  how  much  more  in 
God  is  the  master,  and  not  merely  the  slave,  of  all  law- 
abiding  forces.  .  .  .  This  truth  underlies  all  our  modern 
material  accomplishments.  If  an  engineer  proposed  to 
bridge  a  stream,  who  would  say  to  him:  Tt  is  impossible. 
The  laws  of  nature  forbid  hanging  iron  over  air'?  He 
could  answer:  T  am  not  merely  the  slave  of  nature,  but 
in  part  its  master.  Nature  can  be  used  as  well  as  obeyed/ 
And  if  one  insisted  to  the  contrary,  claiming  that  natural 
laws  are  inviolable,  the  engineer's  reply  is  evident:  'The 
inviolability  of  natural  laws  is  the  beauty  of  them.  They 
are  trusty  servants.  They  can  be  depended  on.  They  are 
unwavering  yesterday,  today,  and  forever.  And  if  you 
will  watch,  you  will  see  me  say  to  this  force,  come,  and 
it  will  come;  to  this  force,  go,  and  it  will  go;  and  I,  a 
person,  will  manipulate  and  utilize  the  law-abiding  ener- 
gies of  nature,  making  infinitely  varied  combinations  of 
invariable  procedures,  until  millions  of  men  shall  cross 
this  river  on  my  bridge.' 

Surely  there  is  a  mine  for  silver, 

And  a  place  for  gold  which  they  refine. 

Iron  is  taken  out  of  the  earth, 

And  copper  is  molten  out  of  the  stone. 

Man  setteth  an  end  to  darkness. 

And  searcheth  out,  to  the  furthest  bound, 

The  stones  of  obscurity  and  of  thick  darkness.  .  .  . 


» "The  Meaning  of  Prayer,"  p.  105. 
54 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

He  putteth  forth  his  hand  upon  the  flinty  rock; 
He  overturneth  the  mountains  by  the  roots. 
He  cutteth  out  channels  among  the  rocks; 
And  his  eye  seeth  every  precious  thing. 
He  bindeth  the  streams  that  they  trickle  not; 
And  the  thing  that  is  hid  bringeth  he  forth  to 
light. 

— ^Job  28: 1-3,  9-1 1. 

The  Key  to  Miracle:  The  Interplay  of  Higher  Laws 

But  we  do  not  see  the  whole  meaning  of  this  process 
by  which  men  have  freed  themselves  from  slavery  to  law 
by  discovering  and  using  higher  laws,  until  we  find  it  to 
be  God's  own  method.  He  has  not  surrounded  us  with 
a  barbed-wire  entanglement  of  relentless  law  to  make  us 
slaves,  but  is  spurring  us  on  to  master  the  law  by  dis- 
covering the  reciprocating  forces  and  using  them  for 
human  progress.  It  is  thus  he  works  out  his  own  mas- 
terful plans.  "Cannot  God  change  his  own  laws?"  the 
writer  was  once  asked  at  this  juncture.  The  answer  is 
simple.  God  does  not  need  to  change  them.  By  using 
reciprocal  forces  and  higher  laws  he  can  accomplish  his 
purpose  without  upsetting  the  moral  universe.  If  men  can 
so  readily  harness  natural  laws  and  cooperate  with  re- 
ciprocating forces  and  master  them,  how  much  more 
surely  can  God  do  so !  Constantly  he  makes  the  laws 
of  nature  his  ministering  spirits,  and  in  complicated  ways 
which  we  are  only  gradually  finding  out.  Thus  we  find 
Dr.  Fosdick  giving  us  this  fine  conclusion,  "Are  the  uni- 
versal powers  plastic  and  usable  in  our  hands,  and  in  God's 
hands  stiflf  and  rigid?  The  whole  analogy  of  human  ex- 
perience suggests  that  the  world  is  not  governed  by  law; 

55 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

that  it  is  governed  by  God  according  to  law.  He  provi- 
dentially utilizes,  manipulates,  and  combines  his  own  in- 
variable ways  of  acting  to  serve  his  own  eternal  pur- 
poses."* 

Here  we  discover  clearly  the  key  to  miracle.  No  man 
is  near  enough  omniscience  to  deny  that  the  supernatural 
is  possible.  Its  probability  in  any  given  instance  is  just 
a  question  of  evidence.  We  cannot  think  of  God  as  help- 
less in  the  cogs  of  his  own  machinery.  Surely  he  is  free 
to  use  in  every  masterful  way  the  natural  forces  which 
express  his  infinitely  varied  life.  Just  because  he  is  the 
indwelling  God  at  the  heart  of  all  life,  he  can  all  the  more 
readily  serve  every  moral  purpose  in  his  world. 

Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny?  and 
not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without 
your  Father :  but  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are 
all  numbered.  Fear  not  therefore :  ye  are  of  more 
value  than  many  sparrows. — Matt.  10:29-31. 

This  means  that,  in  the  midst  of  law,  God's  Providence 
remains  possible.  When  he  wills,  he  can  meet  human 
needs,  and  individual  human  needs,  as  Jesus  assures  us. 
And  in  doing  this,  he  breaks  no  law,  he  suspends  no  law, 
but  in  masterly  ways  he  uses  his  vast  system  of  laws 
for  the  good  of  his  children. 

What  we  understand  as  miracle  is  simply  an  event 
whose  cause  is  to  us  mysterious.  It  seems  to  us  super- 
natural, because  we  cannot  understand  its  process;  but 
to  God  it  is  as  natural  as  daylight.  Many  of  God's  ways 
of  working  we  have  come  to  understand.     Science  has 


*  Ibid,  p.  108. 

56 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

discovered  their  regularity  and  has  reduced  them  to  law. 
But  vast  areas  of  God's  activities  are  still  in  the  border- 
land of  the  unknown.  His  higher  forces  are  but  dimly 
understood.  What  Sir  George  Adam  Smith  says  about  it 
is  likely  long  to  be  true :  "Science  without  mystery  is  un- 
known; religion  without  mystery  would  be  absurd."  Yet, 
more  and  more,  men  are  unlocking  the  secrets  of  God  by 
discovering  the  mysteries.  Always  the  wonder  of  the 
miracle  has  been  due  to  ignorance  of  the  causes  which 
produced  it.  So  it  follows,  with  the  growth  of  human 
knowledge,  that  the  miracles  of  one  age  are  explained 
by  the  discoveries  of  the  next,  and  become  the  common- 
places of  the  future.  The  great  art  of  healing,  transmis- 
sion of  the  human  voice  long  distances,  seeing  the  invisible 
by  penetrating  Roentgen  rays,  the  annihilation  of  time 
and  space  by  rapid  travel,  the  utilizing  of  lightning  to  do 
the  will  of  men — all  these  and  many  more,  were  miracles 
of  impossibility  until  recently;  impossible  when  first 
dreamed  of,  miracles  to  the  multitude  when  first  accom- 
plished, but  now  mere  commonplaces  of  our  life. 

When  in  the  Oberlin  College  chapel,  two  years  ago, 
2,000  people  with  separate  telephone  receivers  heard  the 
waves  of  the  Pacific  ocean  break  upon  the  invisible  shore, 
2,300  miles  away,  while  the  moving-picture  film  visual- 
ized the  scene  simultaneously  before  our  eyes,  we  thought 
the  day  of  miracles  had  not  yet  passed.  Rather,  it  was 
the  passing,  for  us,  of  that  miracle.  It  was  a  miracle  only 
in  proportion  to  our  ignorance  of  the  causes  which  pro- 
duced it.  But  our  children  in  years  to  come  will  smile 
at  our  feeling  of  wonder,  for  they  will  intercept  whispers 
which  encircle  the  globe  without  wires,  and  very  possibly 
may  see  moving  pictures  of  reality,  transmitted  from  a 

57 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

distant  continent.  We  dare  not  say  what  is  impossible; 
the  impossible  has  been  so  often  made  real,  when  men 
have  discovered  the  higher  laws  of  life. 

Let  us  see  then  in  the  miracle,  when  its  evidence  is  well 
attested,  the  activity  of  the  divine  will  in  ways  which  the 
men  of  the  time  could  not  interpret.  And  if  they  still 
seem  mysterious  to  us,  it  is  because  we  fail  to  understand 
the  higher  laws  by  which  God  accomplished  his  purpose. 
The  fact  that  the  mystery  of  some  of  the  miracles  is  ex- 
plained by  modern  knowledge  does  not  mean  that  the 
divine  element  has  been  taken  out  of  them.  Rather  it 
makes  it  possible  for  us  to  see  the  divine  element  in  the 
rest  of  life,  which  is  far  more  important.  Too  great 
stress  upon  the  miracle  tends  to  belittle  the  religious  value 
in  the  rest  of  life.  We  must  not  forget  that  God  is  in  all 
life,  not  simply  in  the  miracle.  In  the  ancient  days  when 
men  believed  that  God  was  far  away,  no  wonder  they 
welcomed  any  sign  of  his  special  and  unwonted  presence. 
We  today  believe  in  a  God  who  is  near.  For  us,  all 
nature  is  in  a  sense  divine,  it  is  a  great  incarnation  of 
God's  infinite  life.  Every  new  conquest  in  the  field  of 
natural  science  is  a  fresh  revelation  of  the  presence  of 
the  Living  God. 

"The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and  the 

plains — 
Are  not  these,  O  Soul,  the  Vision  of  Him  who  reigns? 
The  ear  of  man  cannot  hear  and  the  eye  of  man  cannot 

see; 
But  if  we  could  see  and  hear,  this  Vision — were  it  not 

He?"= 


^  Tennyson,  "The  Higher  Pantheism." 

58 


GOD  IN  THE  LAWS  OF  LIFE 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

Why  have  men  in  many  races  worshiped  the  forces  of 
nature?  Why  does  a  religion  of  mere  nature  worship  not 
satisfy  you? 

Why  do  you  think  so  many  astronomers  have  been 
Christian  men?  Show  how  science  and  religion  are  both 
grounded  in  faith. 

Does  the  uniformity  of  natural  law  trouble  your  faith? 
Can  you  imagine  what  sort  of  a  world  it  would  be,  if  it 
were  only  a  world  of  chance?  Why  are  you  thankful 
for  the  "reign  of  law"? 

What  difference  can  you  see  between  "resident  forces" 
and  Almighty  God?  How  does  it  help  you  to  be  able  to 
trust  these  laws  of  God's  nature  ? 

Which  is  more  powerful,  man  or  "nature"?  Show  how 
men  in  this  generation  have  gained  wonderful  control 
over  natural  forces. 

What  is  a  "miracle"?  Mention  something  which  was 
a  miracle  to  your  grandfather  which  is  a  mere  common- 
place to  you.  Dare  you  deny  the  supernatural?  Show 
how  men  work  wonders  by  combining  and  offsetting 
natural  forces  with  each  other.  If  men  do  this,  cannot 
God  do  likewise?  What  unexplained  miracles  of  today 
do  you  expect  will  seem  perfectly  natural  to  us  in  the 
future?  How  does  discovering  God  in  the  laws  of  life 
give  you  a  larger  and  grander  God? 


59 


CHAPTER  IV 

FINDING  THE  CHRIST  THROUGH 
COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

JVhy  All  the  World  Admires  Jesus  Christ 

The  greatest  fact  in  history  is  Jesus  Christ.  The  marvel 
of  history  is  the  way  the  humble  Galilean  has  won  the 
world's  heart.  Long  since  it  came  about  that  the  civilized 
world  revised  its  calendar,  and  chose  to  take  the  birth 
year  of  Jesus  as  the  beginning  of  the  present  era,  for 
they  counted  his  life  in  Palestine  the  most  significant  fact 
to  date  from.  Today,  nominally  at  least,  one-third  of  the 
world  call  Jesus  Christ  their  Master,  and  even  Moslems 
regard  him  as  a  mighty  prophet;  while  an  innumerable 
throng  in  other  lands  yield  him  spiritual  allegiance,  as 
the  sign  of  his  coming  universal  lordship.  In  a  remark- 
able way  Jesus  has  won  the  world's  devotion.  He  has 
done  this  by  the  drawing  power  of  his  matchless  charac- 
ter, and  his  revealing  to  the  world  what  God  is  like.  For 
he  lived  the  human  life  of  God.  The  vision  of  Paul  in 
his  Roman  prison  in  A.  D.  6^,  perhaps  the  most  astound- 
ing prophecy  in  history,  is  steadily  becoming  true ;  though 
we  see  in  his  faith  only  the  reflection  of  Jesus'  own: 

And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  myself. — John  12 :  32. 

And  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he 
humbled  himself,  becoming  obedient  even  unto 
death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross.  Wherefore 
60 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

also  God  highly  exalted  him,  and  gave  unto  him 
the  name  which  is  above  every  name;  that  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in 
heaven  and  things  on  earth  and  things  under  the 
earth,  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father.— Phil.  2:8-11. 

The  most  godlike  thing  about  Jesus  was  his  spirit  of 
vicarious  sacrifice,  which  showed  throughout  his  life.  He 
was  always  pouring  out  his  life  for  others,  with  not  a 
thought  of  self.  He  was  constantly  sharing  his  life,  his 
time,  his  strength,  his  companionship,  his  best  wisdom,  his 
healing  power;  and  he  crowned  this  sacrificial  life  with 
a  sacrificial  death,  which  shows  us  in  intensest  light  the 
sin  of  men  and  the  love  of  God,  so  vividly  that  men  have 
ever  since  believed  he  died  to  make  them  good.  And  so 
it  comes  about,  that  when  men  suffer  they  come  closest 
to  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  In  the  fellowship  of  suffering  they 
find  him,  particularly  if  their  suffering  is,  like  his,  vicari- 
ous— a  self-forgetful  suffering  for  the  good  of  others. '  In 
this  world  war  countless  men,  women,  and  children  are 
forced  to  suffer,  innocently,  undeservedly.  In  millions  of 
cases,  like  Jesus  himself,  they  choose  to  suffer  gloriously 
rather  than  to  live  dishonored.  They  willingly  suffer  for 
the  sake  of  a  holy  cause.  These  are  the  days  when  men 
and  nations  of  men  prefer  sacrifice  to  disgraceful  ease 
and  comfort.  Of  countless  sacrificial  spirits  in  a  score  of 
nations,  might  with  equal  truth  be  said  this  epitaph  placed 
over  the  grave  of  two  knightly  young  soldiers  of  England : 

*They  went  to  war  for  the  sake  of  peace. 
And  died  without  hate,  that  love  might  live." 
61 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Hozv  Belgium's  Sacfifice  Saved  Europe 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  instance  of  this  vicarious 
sacrifice  we  see  in  the  unselfish  heroism  of  little  Belgium, 
in  August,  1914.  Menaced  by  Germany  with  the  most 
powerful  invading  force  the  world  has  ever  seen,  King 
Albert  stood  on  his  frontier  with  his  heroic  little  army, 
strong  only  in  the  consciousness  of  a  just  cause.  The 
Germans,  in  feverish  haste  to  break  into  France,  offered 
Belgium  a  most  subtle  bribe  if  she  would  only  let  them 
pass  across  her  little  strip  of  neutral  territory.  They 
promised  her  perfect  safety,  entire  immunity  from  any 
attack,  prompt  reparation  for  all  damages.  All  she  must 
do  was  to  break  faith  with  France,  give  up  her  neutrality, 
and  let  the  whirlwind  pass.  But  both  sides  knew  that  the 
cost  of  her  safety  would  be  the  death  of  her  honor  and 
the  loss  of  her  soul.  It  was  an  awful  alternative.  She 
was  given  only  the  twelve  hours  of  a  single  night  to  make 
her  decision. 

To  the  everlasting  glory  of  that  plucky  little  nation, 
she  defied  the  unprincipled  tempter,  and  for  three  weeks 
of  marvelous  resistance  she  kept  up  the  unequal  struggle, 
before  the  forces  of  Prussia  could  burst  through  her  de- 
fenses on  their  bootless  drive  toward  Paris.  Those 
precious  three  wxeks  saved  Paris,  and  the  liberties  of 
Europe — but  at  what  awful  cost !  Meanwhile  the  armies 
of  France  were  mobilizing  and  the  Kaiser  was  foiled. 
The  rape  of  Belgium  may  have  been  the  bloodiest  crime 
since  Calvary,  but  Belgian  blood,  poured  out  unstintedly 
in  vicarious  sacrifice,  redeemed  six-sevenths  of  France 
from  a  similar  fate.  And  she  made  this  sacrifice  by 
deliberate  choice,  rather  than  let  France  suffer  at  the  cost 

62 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

of  Belgian  immunity.  This  Christlike  service  of  the  won- 
derful little  Flemish  people  is  vividly  described  in  Charles 
Sarolea's  volume,  "How  Belgium  Saved  Europe,"  from 
which  I  quote  a  single  burning  page :  "From  the  begin- 
ning, the  war  was  to  the  Belgian  people  a  holy  war.  It 
was  a  crusade  of  civilization  against  barbarism,  of  eternal 
right  against  brute  force.  So  true  is  this,  in  order  ade- 
quately to  realize  the  Belgian  attitude,  we  are  compelled 
to  illustrate  our  meaning  by  adducing  one  of  the  most 
mysterious  conceptions  of  our  Christian  religion,  the 
notion  of  vicarious  sacrifice.  In  theological  language, 
Belgium  suffered  vicariously  for  the  sake  of  Europe.  She 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  struggle.  She  was  left  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  invaders.  She  allowed  herself  to  become 
a  battlefield  in  order  that  France  might  be  free  from 
becoming  a  shambles.  She  had  to  have  her  beautiful 
capital  violated  in  order  that  the  French  capital  might 
remain  inviolate.  She  had  to  submit  to  vandalism,  in 
order  that  humanity  elsewhere  might  be  vindicated. 
Belgium  will  have  lost  everything.  The  material  dam- 
age, the  destruction  of  thousands  of  cities  and  villages, 
the  total  collapse  of  industry  and  trade,  are  incalculable. 
The  damage  to  the  monuments,  sacred  to  art  and  religion, 
is  irreparable.  The  sufferings  inflicted  upon  millions  of 
people  baffle  imagination.  But  the  moral  and  spiritual 
gain  is  equally  inestimable.  Belgium  will  have  proved 
to  all  the  world  her  determination  and  right  to  exist  as 
a  free  nation.  She  will  have  earned  the  sympathy  and 
admiration  of  the  whole  world.  She  will  have  left  an 
inspiring  example  to  posterity.  She  has  lost  everything, 
hilt  she  has  saved  her  own  soul;  and  she  has  saved  the 
liberties  of  Europe," 

63 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

For  Zion's  sake  will  I  not  hold  my  peace,  and 
for  Jerusalem's  sake  I  will  not  rest,  until  her 
righteousness  go  forth  as  brightness,  and  her 
salvation  as  a  lamp  that  burneth.  And  the  nations 
shall  see  thy  righteousness,  and  all  kings  thy 
glory;  and  thou  shalt  be  called  by  a  new  name, 
which  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  shall  name.  Thou 
shalt  also  be  a  crown  of  beauty  in  the  hand  of 
Jehovah,  and  a  royal  diadem  in  the  hand  of  thy 
God.  Thou  shalt  no  more  be  termed  Forsaken; 
neither  shall  thy  land  any  more  be  termed  Deso- 
late.— Isa.  62:  1-4. 

The  Soldier's  Experience  of  Vicarious  Sacrifice 

Who  shall  say  that  Belgium's  rediscovery  of  Christ  has 
not  been  due  to  this  heroic  loyalty  to  the  spirit  of  his 
sacrifice?  Certain  it  is  that  the  Belgians,  pleasure-loving 
and  rather  sordidly  prosperous  under  Leopold  the  rubber 
king,  before  the  war,  have  been  purged  and  purified  by 
their  baptism  of  fire.  Under  the  spiritual  leadership  of 
the  dauntless  and  saintly  Mercier,  they  have  become  a 
religious  people.  They  seem  to  have  discovered  afresh 
the  real  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  they  have 
trodden  the  via  dolorosa  and  experienced  the  meaning  of 
saviorhood. 

This  experience  of  the  Belgian  nation  has  been  shared 
by  many  a  soldier  who  has  heroically  stood  the  triple 
challenge  of  danger,  hardship,  and  suffering.  Such  a 
spirit  of  devotion  to  the  cause  is  glorious  to  see.  Often 
it  is  accompanied  by  a  jaunty  defiance  even  of  death  itself, 
which  proves  the  hollow  falsehood  of  Satan's  faithless 
sneer,  "All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give   for  his  life" 

64 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

(Job  2:4).  Describing  his  comrades  in  the  early  British 
forces  in  the  war,  Hankey,  the  ''Student  in  Arms"  writes : 
"Then  at  last  we  'got  out.'  We  were  confronted  with 
dearth,  danger,  and  death.  .  .  .  Yet  they,  who  had 
formerly  been  our  despair,  were  now  our  glory.  Their 
spirits  effervesced.  Their  wit  sparkled.  Hunger  and 
thirst  could  not  depress  them.  Rain  could  not  dampen 
them.  Cold  could  not  chill  them.  Every  hardship  became 
a  joke.  .  .  .  Never  was  such  a  triumph  of  spirit  over 
matter.  ...  If  it  was  another  fellow  that  was  hit,  it  was 
an  occasion  for  tenderness  and  grief.  But  if  one  of  them 
was  hit,  O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting?  O  Grave,  where 
is  thy  victory?  .  .  .  Life?  They  did  not  value  life! 
They  had  never  been  able  to  make  much  of  a  fist  of  it. 
But  if  they  lived  amiss  they  died  gloriously,  with  a  smile 
for  the  pain  and  the  dread  of  it.  What  else  had  they 
been  born  for?  It  was  their  chance.  With  a  gay  heart 
they  gave  their  greatest  gift,  and  with  a  smile  to  think 
that  after  all  they  had  anything  to  give  which  was  of 
value.  One  by  one  Death  challenged  them.  One  by  one 
they  smiled  in  his  grim  visage,  and  refused  to  be  dis- 
mayed. They  had  been  lost,  but  they  had  found  the  path 
that  led  them  home;  and  when  at  last  they  laid  their 
lives  at  the  feet  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  what  could  they 
do  but  smile?'" 

For  I  am  already  being  offered,  and  the  time 
of  my  departure  is  come.  I  have  fought  the  good 
fight,  I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith:  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the 
crown    of    righteousness,    which   the    Lord,    the 


1  "A  Student  in  Arms,"  p.  123. 

65 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

righteous  judge,  shall  give  to  me  at  that  day;  and 
not  to  me  only,  but  also  to  all  them  that  have 
loved  his  appearing. — II  Tim.  4:6-8. 

How  Heroism  Transfigures  Men 

For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
these  are  sons  of  God.  For  ye  received  not  the 
spirit  of  bondage  again  unto  fear;. but  ye  received 
the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba, 
Father.  The  Spirit  himself  beareth  witness  with 
our  spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God. — Rom. 
8:14-17. 

There  can  be  no  experience  more  ennobling  than  this 
consciousness  of  suffering  that  others  may  live.  It  cer- 
tainly refines  character.  It  gives  it  a  moral  tonicity,  an 
insight  into  life's  higher  meanings,  and  a  zest  of  holy 
gladness  which  only  the  joy  of  sacrifice  can  impart.  It 
is  the  transfiguration  of  the  human  spirit.  John  Oxen- 
ham  has  discerned  this,  and  depicts  it  with  unerring  touch 
in  his  recent  poem,  "Face  to  Face  With  Reality." 

"What  did  you  see  out  there,  my  lad, 
That  has  set  that  look  in  your  eyes? 
You  went  out  a  boy,  you  have  come  back  a  man, 
With  strange  new  depths  underneath  your  tan; 
What  was  it  you  saw  out  there,  my  lad, 
That  set  such  deeps  in  your  eyes? 

'Strange  things,  and  sad,  and  wonderful — 
Things  that  I  scarce  can  tell; 
I  have  been  in  the  sweep  of  the  Reaper's  scythe. 
With  God,  and  Christ,  and  hell. 
66 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

'1  have  seen  Christ  doing  Christly  deeds ; 
I  have  seen  the  devil  at  play ; 
I  have  grimped  to  the  sod  in  the  hand  of  God. 
I  have  seen  the  God-less  pray.  .  .  . 

*I  have  lain  alone  among  the  dead, 
With  no  hope  but  to  die ; 
I  have  seen  them  killing  the  wounded  ones; 
I  have  seen  them  crucify.  ... 

*I  have  sped  through  hells  of  fiery  hail, 
With  fell  red-fury  shod; 
I  have  heard  the  whisper  of  a  voice ; 
I  have  looked  in  the  face  of  God.' 

You've  a  right  to  your  deep,  high  look,  my  lad, 

You  have  met  God  in  the  ways ; 

And  no  man  looks  into  His  face 

But  he  feels  it  all  his  days. 

You've  a  right  to  your  deep,  high  look,  my  lad, 

And  we  thank  Him  for  His  grace." 

It  was  of  such  splendid  lads  that  Dr.  Gilbert  Murray, 
the  author  of  "Faith,  War,  and  Policy,"  writes,  as  he 
describes  the  typical  Oxford  men  who  have  borne  more 
than  their  part  in  the  war:  "As  for  me  personally,  there 
is  one  thought  that  is  always  with  me,  the  thought  that 
other  men  are  dying  for  me,  better  men,  younger,  with 
more  hope  in  their  lives,  many  of  whom  I  have  taught 
and  loved.  The  orthodox  Christian  will  be  familiar  with 
the  thought  of  One  who  loved  you  dying  for  you.  I  would 
like  to  say  that  now  I  seem  to  be  familiar  with  the  feel- 
ing that  something  innocent,  something  great,  something 
that  loved  me,  is  dying  and  is  dying  daily  for  me.    That 

67 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

is  the  sort  of  community  we  now  are — a  community  in 
which  one  man  dies  for  his  brother."^ 

Yet  the  last  person  to  be  pitied  is  one  who  has  heard 
the  call  to  saviorhood  and  has  not  flinched,  but  has  been 
able  to  earn  his  martyr's  crown.  He  is  well  content  with- 
out a  halo.  That  was  a  keen  suggestion  of  a  recent 
magazine  writer,  "Perhaps  in  the  crowd  at  Golgotha  the 
mother  of  Judas  envied  Mary  as  she  stood  below  her 
crucified  Son."  Of  many  of  our  modern  martyrs  it  can 
even  be  said,  "For  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  he 
endured  the  cross."  A  dying  Canadian  soldier,  writing 
from  a  hospital  in  France,  revealed  this  joyous  satis- 
faction in  being  able  to  die  for  his  country,  in  this  good-by 
note  he  wrote  to  his  mother:  "Mother  dear,  my  orders 
have  come,  and  in  a  few  minutes  I  must  go  and  report 
to  my  Commander  at  the  great  Headquarters.  In  these 
moments  I  am  trying  to  make  you  know  how  happy  I  am ; 
how  proud  to  help  in  the  holiest  cause  a  man  could  serve. 
When  I  enlisted  I  knew  such  a  day  as  this  might  come, 
but  I  do  not  regret  it.  I  am  happy  in  the  thought  that 
I  can  make  my  gift  complete.  But  you  must  not  worry; 
that  is  my  only  anxiety.  Will  you  try  to  be  glad  and 
thankful  with  me?  I  shall  go  soon  now,  but  I  shall  be 
happy  and  safe,  and  waiting."  .  .  .  Faltering  fingers  added 
a  sacred  closing  message  of  undying  love.^ 

The  same  splendid  note  of  lofty,  joyous  courage  is 
sounded  in  a  letter  found  in  the  pocket  of  a  soldier  after 
the  battle.  He  had  thoughtfully  written  it  to  his  mother 
for  delivery  in  case  of  his  death.  I  quote  but  the  closing 
paragraph:  "...  I  have  had  a  happy  time  of  it.     Don't 

2  "Faith,  War,  and  Policy,"  p.  92. 

3  Quoted  in  "The  High  Call,"  by  Dr.  Ernest  M.  Stires,  p.  109. 

68 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

be  sorry  for  me.  It  is  not  every  man  who  has  the  privilege 
of  dying  for  all  he  thinks  worth  while  in  the  world;  and 
this  old  world  without  British  influence  for  good,  and 
without  you  dear  people,  would  be  a  poor  place  to  live 
in.  We  are  fighting  for  very  high  ideals — justice,  honesty, 
and  fair-play  among  the  nations,  for  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  against  those  of  the  devil.  It  is  an  unselfish  cause 
and  one  for  which  I  am  very  proud  to  be  fighting.  I  know 
you  will  be  sad,  but  you  can  comfort  yourself  with  the 
thought  that  you  too  have  had  to  make  a  sacrifice  for  the 
noblest  possible  cause."* 

Such  letters  breathe  the  spirit  worthy  of  the  finest  tradi- 
tions of  English  and  American  heroism.  It  is  great  to 
know  that  the  boys  of  today  are  proving  true  to  their 
splendid  heritage  of  loyalty  to  the  nation's  noblest  past, 
a  loyalty  which  has  never  failed  in  crisis  times,  through- 
out Anglo-Saxon  history.  Lowell's  thrilling  lines  were  no 
truer  of  the  patriots  of  the  Civil  War  than  they  are  of  our 
boys  in  khaki  and  the  navy  blue  today: 

"O  Beautiful !  my  Country !  .  .  . 

What  were  our  lives  without  thee  ? 
What  all  our  lives  to  save  thee? 
We  reck  not  what  we  gave  thee ; 
We  will  not  dare  to  doubt  thee, 
But  ask  whatever  else,  and  we  will  dare !" 


Finding  Christ  in  Flanders 

Yea  verily,  and  I  count  all  things  to  be  loss  for 
the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
my  Lord:  for  whom  I  suffered  the  loss  of  all 

<  Jhid. 

69 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

things,  and  do  count  them  but  refuse,  that  I  may- 
gain  Christ,  and  be  found  in  him,  not  having  a 
righteousness  of  mine  own,  even  that  which  is  of 
the  law,  but  that  which  is  through  faith  in  Christ, 
the  righteousness  which  is  from  God  by  faith: 
that  I  may  know  him,  and  the  power  of  his  resur- 
rection, and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  be- 
-coming  conformed  unto  his  death;  if  by  any 
means  I  may  attain  unto  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead.— Phil.  3:8-11. 

Is^ot  the  least  of  our  causes  for  thanksgiving,  as  we 
'discover  the  splendid  way  in  which  our  soldiers  in  all 
the  allied  armies  are  bearing  their  hardships  and  tri- 
umphantly suffering  for  the  great  cause,  is  the  effect  upon 
the  boys  themselves.  Their  experience  of  vicarious  sacri- 
fice is  bringing  them  face  to  face  with  the  Christ  him- 
self. The  ordinary  life  at  home  in  times  of  peace,  the 
upholstered  life  of  over-fed  prosperity,  blinds  many  a  man 
to  the  inner  life  of  religion  and  the  things  of  the  spirit. 
In  his  false  security  and  independence,  he  feels  little  need 
of  God,  and  takes  no  interest  in  heaven,  while  this  world 
is  so  interesting  and  absorbing.  But  the  discipline  and 
harsh  realities  of  war,  the  setting-up  drills,  physical  and 
moral,  the  inner  heart-searchings  in  the  presence  of  great 
danger,  the  frequent  iniminence  of  death,  and  countless 
other  experiences,  replace  carelessness  in  many  a  soldier 
with  earnestness  of  spirit.  He  talks  little  of  religion.  He 
does  not  think  himself  to  be  religious.  But  the  more  he 
enters  into  Gethsemane  experiences,  the  more  he  suffers 
for  humanity's  sake,  the  better  he  understands  the  story 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  understands  now  what  vicarious  suf- 
fering is,  though  he  may  never  have   heard  the   word. 

70 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

Some  day  in  the  trenches  perhaps,  he  finds  Jesus  and 
greets  him  as  a  comrade-in-arms,  in  the  holy  fellowship 
of  suffering.  This  is  the  message  of  these  homely,  halt- 
ing, but  very  human  lines  written  by  a  nameless  British 
soldier,  in  which  he  has  interwoven  a  whole  personal 
religious  experience.  There's  a  deal  of  human  feeling  in 
them,  and  great  reassurance  also  for  our  faith,  as  we 
think  of  the  many  others  of  whom  this  experience  is 
doubtless  typical,  and  rejoice  that  our  Christ  is  finding 
the  men  in  Flanders  and  on  every  battle-line. 

Christ  in  Flanders 

"We  had  forgotten  You,  or  very  nearly, 
You  did  not  seem  to  touch  us  very  nearly. 

Of  course  we  thought  about  You  now  and  then, 
Especially  in  any  time  of  trouble. 
We  knew  that  You  were  good  in  time  of  trouble, 

But  we  were  very  ordinary  men. 

And  there  were  always  other  things  to  think  of; 
There's  lots  of  things  a  man  has  got  to  think  of, 

His  work,  his  home,  his  pleasure,  and  his  wife; 
And  so  we  only  thought  of  You  on  Sunday; 
Sometimes  perhaps  not  even  on  a  Sunday, 

Because  there's  always  lots  to  fill  one's  life. 

And  all  the  while,  in  street  or  lane  or  byway, 
In  country  lane,  in  city  street  or  byway. 

You  walked  among  us,  and  we  did  not  see. 
Your  feet  were  bleeding  as  You  walked  our  pavements. 
How  did  we  miss  your  foot-prints  on  our  pavements? 

Can  there  be  other  folk  as  blind  as  we? 
71 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Now  we  remember,  over  here  in  Flanders. 

(It  isn't  strange  to  think  of  You  in  Flanders.) 

This  hideous  warfare  seems  to  make  things  clear. 
We  never  thought  about  You  much  in  England; 
But  now  that  we  are  far  away  from  England, 

We  have  no  doubts — we  know  that  You  are  here. 

You  helped  us  pass  the  jest  along  the  trenches, 
Where  in  cold  blood  we  waited  in  the  trenches, 

You  touched  the  ribaldry  and  made  it  fine. 
You  stood  beside  us  in  our  pain  and  weakness. 
We're  glad  to  think  You  understand  our  weakness. 

Somehow  it  seems  to  help  us  not  to  whine. 

We  think  about  You  kneeling  in  the  garden. 
Ah,  God,  the  agony  of  that  dread  garden ! 

We  know  You  prayed  for  us  upon  the  cross. 
If  anything  could  make  us  glad  to  bear  it, 
'Twould  be  the  knowledge  that  You  willed  to  bear  it, 

Pain,  death,  the  uttermost  of  human  loss. 

Though  we  forgot  You,  You  will  not  forget  us. 
We  feel  so  sure  that  You  will  not  forget  us. 

But  stay  with  us  until  this  dream  is  past. 
And  so  we  ask  for  courage,  strength,  and  pardon — 
Especially,  I  think,  we  ask  for  pardon. 

And  that  You'll  stand  beside  us  to  the  last.'" 

Finding  Christ  at  Home  through  Fellowship  in  Suf- 
fering 

When  we  think  of  the  soldiers'  dangers  and  privations, 
there  seems  to  be  little  real  sacrifice  at  home.     How  can 

"Quoted  in  "With  Our  Soldiers  in  France,"  p.  194./ 

72 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

we  speak  of  the  sufferings  of  civilians,  in  safe,  comfort- 
able homes,  3,000  miles  from  danger?  And  yet  when  the 
city  of  Medford,  Aiassachusetts,  held  a  public  meeting  to 
honor  the  three  ]\Iedford  boys  in  France  who  were  the 
first  to  be  cited  for  special  bravery  in  action,  there  seemed 
to  be  a  fine  appropriateness  in  the  act  of  the  mayor  in 
pinning  the  war  cross  of  heroism  upon  the  breasts  of  the 
mothers  of  those  three  soldier  boys.  The  highest  costs 
of  every  war  are  likely  to  be  borne  by  the  mothers.  Angela 
Morgan's  poem,  "The  Battle  Cry  of  the  ]\lothers,"  depicts 
in  vivid  realism  the  sacrifices  which  women  have  always 
made  in  war.  She  makes  this  appeal  to  the  crowned  heads 
that  force  wars  of  aggression  upon  their  people : 

"Emperors  !   Kings  !   On  your  heedless  throne. 
Do  you  hear  the  cry  that  the  mothers  make? 
The  blood  you  shed  is  our  own,  our  own ; 
You  shall  answer  for  our  sake. 

When  you  pierce  his  side,  you  have  pierced  our  side. 
O  mothers !    The  ages  we  have  cried ! 
And  the  shell  that  sunders  his  flesh  apart 
Enters  our  bleeding  heart." 

This  cry  of  the  mothers  against  the  slaughter  of  war  is 
perfectly  justifiable,  when  the  war  is  needless  or  unjust; 
but  in  our  country  at  least  it  is  seldom  expressed.  The 
mothers  are  usually  as  patriotic  as  their  sons  and  seldom 
complain  of  their  great  sacrifices.  No  man  knows  the 
battles  won  by  help  of  mothers'  prayers,  or  the  vast  sus- 
taining power  of  these  prayers  for  the  boys  who  are  in 
danger  far  from  home.  Our  mothers  are  not  likely  to 
suffer  one-tenth  of  the  awful  hardships  and  insults  of  the 
European  women,  especially  in  Belgium,  France,  Serbia, 

73 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

and  Poland;  but  there  will  be  sacrifice  enough  before  the 
war  shall  end.  It  will  involve  not  only  painful  anxiety, 
and  the  loss  of  dear  ones  possibly,  but  much  incidental 
privation,  poverty,  and  unaccustomed  toil.  Yet  with  all 
their  sacrifices,  women,  the  country  over,  will  make  many 
gains  by  the  war,  as  they  already  have  done  in  England. 
Beside  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  they  will  gain,  to 
a  large  extent,  economic  and  industrial  equality  with  men. 
They  have  well  deserved  and  have  already  gained  large 
recognition  in  community  leadership  and  the  satisfaction 
of  rendering  great  service  to  the  nation,  through  their 
Red  Cross  work  and  numberless  other  war  activities. 

Civilian  men  will  also  bear  increasingly  heavy  burdens, 
before  the  war  is  won.  We  are  likely  to  know  the  crush- 
ing weight  of  taxes  as  never  imagined  before.  We  shall 
feel  the  speeding  up  of  industry  in  many  lines,  almost  to 
the  breaking  point.  The  strain  of  high  prices  of  com- 
modities will  be  more  and  more  severe,  especially  in  homes 
where  the  breadwinners  have  gone  with  the  colors.  The 
scarcity  of  labor  will  double  the  burdens  of  many  in  short- 
handed  shops,  factories,  and  offices ;  and  this  overwork, 
with  overstrain,  will  be  accompanied  by  constant  anxiety 
in  most  of  our  homes,  for  the  boys  at  the  front.  If  ever 
the  men  of  America  needed  the  sustaining  power  of  reli- 
gion, it  is  now.  Instinctively  thousands  of  them  are  look- 
ing to  Christ  for  strength.  They  will  find  him,  if  they 
seek  him  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  suffer  and  the  homes 
of  those  who  need.  May  God  grant  that  our  whole  nation, 
after  grandly  assuming  the  burdens  of  a  gloriously  un- 
selfish war,  with  no  hope  or  desire  for  any  sort  of  gain, 
may  find  a  blessing  as  great  as  its  sacrifice.  May  the  men 
of  America,  through  their  manifold  sacrifices  for  the  sake 

74 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

of  a  belter  world,  find  a  real  comradeship  with  the  world's 
great  Savior. 

Humble  yourselves  therefore  under  the  mighty- 
hand  of  God,  that  he  may  exalt  you  in  due  time; 
casting  all  your  anxiety  upon  him,  because  he 
careth  for  you.  .  .  .  And  the  God  of  all  grace, 
who  called  you  unto  his  eternal  glory  in  Christ, 
after  that  ye  have  suffered  a  little  while,  shall 
himself  perfect,  establish,  strengthen  you.  To 
him  be  the  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 
— I  Pet.  5:6,  7,  10,  II. 

Are  We  Sure  that  Sacrifice  Pays? 

Sacrifice  is  a  burden  lightly  borne  with  the  joy  of  a 
loving  loyal  heart,  if  the  motives  for  it  are  kept  clear  and 
strong.  But  if  the  motives  are  lost,  the  zest  is  gone,  and 
then  sacrifice  becomes  intolerable.  As  the  burdens  of 
this  war  increase,  and  more  and  more  the  sacrifices 
pinch,  and  the  sufferings  multiply,  we  shall  ask  ourselves 
the  question,  quite  silently  at  first,  "After  all,  does  it  pay  ?" 
To  prevent  even  this  unuttered  thought  of  the  slacker, 
we,  soldiers  and  civilians  all,  need  to  keep  the  motives 
crisp  and  clear.  I  would  that  in  every  home  where  war 
weariness  is  apt  to  enter,  and  every  soldiers'  barracks 
where  the  first  blush  of  disloyalty  to  the  cause  begins  to 
appear,  there  might  be  posted  this  clear  statement  of  the 
simplest,  strongest  motive  of  the  war : 

"Freedom  is  a  precious,  an  inalienable  human  right. 
What  have  men  been  fighting  for  in  this  war?  Not  for 
land  or  money,  not  hate  or  glory;  but  for  Freedom,  the 
crown  of  all  character.  If  the  enemy  offered  to  pave  your 
streets    with   gold,    with   the    promise   of    a    science   that 

75 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

could  obviate  all  sickness  and  suffering,  but  at  the  price 
of  enslaving  your  sons,  would  you  choose  the  ease  of 
slavery,  or  the  suffering  of  freedom?  Would  you  rather 
be  a  contented  pig  in  a  golden  sty,  or  a  suffering  man, 
struggling  for  character,  fighting  for  his  nation,  sacrificing 
for  humanity,  with  the  power  of  an  endless  life?  Would 
your  choice  lie  with  the  unequal  strife  of  the  brave 
Greeks  of  old,  as  they  ran  down  the  plains  of  Marathon 
with  the  shout  of  Freedom,  or  with  the  drunken  revelry 
of  the  enslaved  Persians?  Would  you  choose  to  follow 
Leonidas  and  the  Spartan  heroes,  dying  for  Greek  free- 
dom, or  be  surfeited  in  Xerxes'  tents  of  luxury?  Do  you 
glory  in  a  Belgium,  rich  with  a  Leopold's  spoils  of  an  en- 
slaved Congo,  or  in  a  Belgium  stretched  on  a  cross  of  suf- 
fering for  Europe's  freedom?  And  if  you  glory  in  the 
fight  for  freedom  in  the  past,  will  you  not  accept  your 
own  cross  of  suffering  now  in  the  present  ?"® 

For  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  pres- 
ent time  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the 
glory  which  shall  be  revealed  to  usward.  For 
the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creation  waiteth 
for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God. — Rom.  8: 
i8,  19. 

The  great  thought  of  future  compensation,  that  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  present  should  be  borne  with  fortitude 
and  patience  because  of  the  future  glory  to  be  won,  is 
the  stoicism  of  faith.  It  has  helped  many  to  bear  their 
sorrows  with  a  smile.  But  to  others  it  brings  little  com- 
fort to  relieve  the  present  strain. 

After   all,   the   real   reason   sacrifice   pays,    when   high 

8  Sherwood  Eddy,  in  "Suffering  and  the  War,"  p.  Si. 

76 


COMRADESHIP  IN  SACRIFICE 

motive  demands  it,  is  because  it  is  godlike.  Suffering 
tests  the  mettle  of  the  soul,  and  "the  whole  creation  waits 
for  the  revealing."  For  kingly  souls,  formed  as  it  were 
of  living  gold  which  stands  the  fiery  furnace,  the  outcome 
is  assured.  They  stand  forth  in  the  glory  of  their  sacri- 
fice, "revealed  as  sons  of  God."  In  the  fiery  furnace  of 
this  war,  the  Christ  is  finding  many  comrades.  Humanity, 
in  the  midst  of  its  Calvary,  is  shining  forth  in  all  the 
glory  of  its  birthright.  As  day  after  day  the  overworked 
cables  tick  out  the  endless  messages  of  bravery,  courage, 
and  deathless  loyalty  which  never  counts  the  cost,  we  are 
learning  anew  the  glorious  stuff  which  God  has  put  into 
the  hearts  of  men.  Yes,  in  such  a  cause  the  sacrifice  is 
worth  the  cost.  It  shows  we  are  sons  of  the  King.  It 
shows  us  our  kinship  with  Christ.  It  helps  us  to  find 
him,  in  the  thick  of  battle,  as  we  incarnate  his  Spirit. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

Why  does  the  modern  world  calendar  date  from  Jesus' 
birth?  What  was  the  most  godlike  thing  about  Jesus? 
Why  has  his  name  become  the  most  prominent  in  all 
history  ? 

What  is  vicarious  sacrifice  and  why  do  you  admire  it? 
How  did  Belgium  save  the  liberties  of  Europe?  What 
eft'ect  did  this  experience  have  upon  her  national  char- 
acter? 

Do  you  believe  Satan's  words,  *'A11  that  a  man  hath  will 
he  give  for  his  life"  ?  What  effect  has  vicarious  suffering 
had  upon  the  soldiers  in  this  war? 

How  does  heroism  transfigure  men  ?  Why  do  men  often 
welcome  danger  and  the  chance  to  be  heroic?  In  what 
sense  is  it  true  that  our  soldiers  are  suffering  and  dying 
for  us? 

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FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

What  does  Paul  mean  by  "the  fellowship  of  Christ's 
suffering"?  How  do  discipline  and  hardship  affect  the 
soldier  boys?  Does  suffering  for  others  help  them  to  un- 
derstand Jesus? 

In  what  various  ways  are  people  in  America  sacrificing 
to  help  wun  the  war?  What  great  gains  are  women,  in 
various  countries,  making  because  of  the  war?  How  can 
religion  help  men  bear  the  increasing  strain  which  the 
war  is  likely  to  bring? 

Do  you  think  the  results  of  this  war  will  be  worth 
what  you  have  sacrificed  for  it?  What  is  the  great  reason 
why  sacrifice  pays? 


78 


CHAPTER  V 

FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD  BY  THE 
HELP  OF  THE  CHRIST 

A  New  Heresy:  Redemption  by  Battle  Death 

Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends. — John   15:13. 

At  the  left  of  the  entrance  to  the  chapel  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris  there  is  a  very  striking 
painting.  Its  position  of  high  honor  indicates  its  local 
popularity.  It  bears  the  title  of  "The  Two  Saviors."  It 
presents  together  the  dying  Christ  on  the  cross  of  Calvary, 
and  a  mortally  wounded  soldier  of  France  on  a  modern 
battlefield.  The  Christ  dying  for  the  world  and  the  sol- 
dier dying  for  his  country  are  both  held  up  to  the  wor- 
shipers in  this  university  chapel  as  objects  of  reverence. 

The  writer  frankly  acknowledges  that  when  he  first 
saw  this  painting  his  feeling  was  distinctly  unfavorable. 
It  seemed  a  species  of  near-blasphemy.  We  can  give 
great  honor  to  the  patriot  martyr  who  dies  to  save  his 
country,  without  elevating  his  noble  act  to  the  level  of 
divine  saviorhood.  The  soldier  in  this  present  war  who 
willingly  suffers  for  the  great  Cause,  who  gives  his  all 
in  vicarious  sacrifice,  certainly  reflects  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  suffered  that  others  might  live.  Both  illus- 
trate the  truth  of  the  Scripture:  "Greater  love  hath  no 
man  than  this,   that   a   man   lay   down   his   life   for   his 

79 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

friends."  Both  command  our  unlimited  respect  and  ad- 
miration. The  purpose  of  the  preceding  chapter  was  to 
show  how  Christlike  is  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  the 
Christian  soldier  who  suffers  to  make  the  world  better, 
and  to  show  also  how  the  experience  teaches  the  soldier 
the  true  meaning  of  saviorhood  and  helps  him  to  under- 
stand his  Master,  Jesus  Christ. 

It  appears  that  in  some  quarters  on  the  battle  front 
this  suggestive  thought  has  been  carried  too  far.  We  are 
told  that  both  French  Romanist  chaplains  and  English 
Protestant  chaplains  have  taught  that  death  in  battle  has 
redemptive  value  for  the  soldier.  Belief  in  redemption 
by  battle  death  is  a  new  kind  of  heresy.  There  can  be 
no  question  that  many  a  soldier  is  made  a  better  man  by 
the  discipline  and  severe  testings  of  a  righteous  war. 
Without  doubt  the  experience  of  suffering  for  others  has 
a  refining  influence  upon  character.  But  to  imagine  it 
possible  to  escape  the  moral  penalties  of  an  immoral  life 
by  dying  in  battle  is  not  only  contrary  to  the  religion  of 
Christ,  but  contrary  to  common  sense.  It  is  just  one  more 
theory  of  magical  atonement  for  sin.  The  dying  soldier 
must  carry  with  him  into  eternity  the  character  he  pro- 
duced in  life.  No  single  act,  however  noble  and  morally 
sublime,  can  counteract  an  immoral  life,  reverse  vicious 
habits,  and  give  the  man  a  right  heart  of  universal  good 
will.  Only  the  Christ  Spirit  entering  the  soldier's  heart 
can  gradually  accomplish  this  transforming  miracle.  To 
teach  him  that  he  can  atone  for  his  own  sins  by  dying 
for  his  country  is  but  the  cruelty  of  arousing  false  hopes. 
The  soldier  has  the  mightiest  challenge  for  high  and  noble 
living  and  heroic  dying,  but  he  needs  redemption  through 
Jesus  Christ  fully  as  much  as  his  civilian  brother  in  the 

80 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

old  home.  Sherwood  Eddy  says  in  this  connection,  "It 
is  going  far  beyond  the  province  of  the  Christian  minister 
to  offer  any  hope  other  than  that  which  is  offered  by  our 
Lord  Himself.  It  is  not  death,  or  a  bullet,  or  battle,  that 
saves.  Christ  only  saves,  and  there  is  no  other  name  given 
under  heaven.  But  although  one  may  not  preach  so 
dangerous  and  misleading  a  doctrine,  it  is  nevertheless 
possible  to  realize  that  many  a  man  is  unconsciously  more 
of  a  Christian  than  he  knows,  and  that  in  the  last  day  he 
may  say  with  surprise:  'When  saw  I  Thee  an  hungered 
and  fed  Thee?'  "^ 

Our  Need  of  Christ  to  Make  God  Seem  Personal 

Jesus  saith  unto  him,  I  am  the  way,  and  the 
truth,  and  the  life :  no  one  cometh  unto  the  Father, 
but  by  me.  If  ye  had  known  me,  ye  would  have 
known  my  Father  also :  from  henceforth  ye  know 
him,  and  have  seen  him.  Philip  saith  unto  him. 
Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us. 
Jesus  saith  unto  him.  Have  I  been  so  long  time 
with  you,  and  dost  thou  not  know  me,  Philip? 
he  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father;  how 
sayest  thou.  Show  us  the  Father?  Believest  thou 
not  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
me?  the  words  that  I  say  unto  you  I  speak  not 
from  myself :  but  the  Father  abiding  in  me  doeth 
his  works.  Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father, 
and  the  Father  in  me:  or  else  believe  me  for  the 
very  works'  sake. — John  14:  6-11. 

The  trouble  with  much  of  the  religion  of  the  trenches 
is  its  indefiniteness.     With  many  of  us  at  home,  God  is 

1  "With  Our  Soldiers  in  France,"  p.  148. 

81 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

only  a  vague  abstraction.  The  same  is  true,  also,  of  too 
many  of  the  soldiers.  They  believe  in  God  as  a  mighty 
influence,  but  hardly  as  a  person.  They  do  not  know  him ; 
they  merely  know  of  him.  There  is  a  vast  difference.  A 
hearsay  God  does  not  help  a  man  much  when  the  pinch 
comes  and  he  needs  divine  help.  Somehow  we  must  get 
acquainted  with  the  Comrade  God.  We  must  know  him 
as  an  ever-present,  constant  Friend  and  Father,  both  able 
and  willing  to  help  us.  It  is  one  thing  to  feel  awe-stricken 
at  the  thought  of  God  and  to  wonder  at  his  power.  It  is 
quite  another  thing  to  live  constantly  with  the  joy  of  his 
conscious  presence.  If  ever  the  world  needed  this  latter, 
it  is  now. 

One  wonderful  result  of  the  experience  of  these  stress- 
ful times,  for  all  of  us  at  home  or  at  the  front,  should 
be  the  rediscovery  of  God.  If  we  have  simply  taken  God 
for  granted,  or  perhaps  have  just  ignored  him,  the  awful 
upheaval  of  our  terrible  generation  with  its  interplay  of 
colossal  forces  is  likely  to  reveal  him.  Possibly  in  the 
former  days  of  easy  prosperity  we  were  comfortable 
enough  without  God  and  it  was  easy  to  forget  him.  But 
life  is  different  now.  Fathers  cannot  part  with  their  sons 
for  overseas  service  and  the  constant  danger  involved 
without  realizing  their  human  weakness,  their  need  of 
divine  help.  Life's  hazards  are  increasing,  its  uncer- 
tainties multiplying.  Our  pathetic  human  frailty  in  the 
vortex  of  titanic  forces  makes  us  all  humble  and  depend- 
ent upon  God.  It  kills  our  pride,  our  confidence,  our 
self-sufficiency;  but  it  is  good  for  our  souls.  It  makes 
us  grope  in  our  darkness  for  the  invisible  Spirit  of 
Efficient  Good  Will  which  faith  tells  us  is  still  at  the 
heart  of  life. 

82 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

But  just  because  this  Spirit  God  is  invisible  and  in- 
tangible, he  seems  a  foreigner  to  our  world.  If  we  live 
only  in  the  world  of  the  senses,  we  do  not  find  him,  for 
the  physical  senses  cannot  report  him  to  us.  Only  our 
inner  consciousness,  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  soul,  can  tell 
us  of  his  presence.  But  even  then,  it  is  hard  for  us  to 
know  him  as  a  person.  We  need  his  vastness  "stepped 
down"  to  the  range  of  our  human  perceptions.  We  need 
his  infinite  power,  wisdom,  and  love  somehow  focussed 
within  the  narrow  scope  of  our  human  understanding. 
This  is  just  what  Jesus  of  Nazareth  does  for  us.  He  lived 
for  us  the  human  life  of  God.  He  made  God  visible, 
vocal,  and  tangible  to  men — as  much  of  God  as  could 
be  interpreted  to  human  senses  and  expressed  through 
human  flesh.    Thus  he  interprets  God  to  men. 

How  the  Word  Became  Flesh 

In  him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men.  And  the  light  shineth  in  the  darkness ;  and 
the  darkness  apprehended  it  not.  .  .  .  And  the 
Word  became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we 
beheld  his  glory,  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten 
from  the  Father),  full  of  grace  and  truth. — 
John  1 :  4,  5.  I4- 

The  human  ear  is  a  wonderful  instrument  for  capturixig 
sound  waves  and  interpreting  them  through  the  brain  to 
the  human  mind,  with  its  inborn  love  of  music.  But  only 
a  few  octaves  can  possibly  be  heard  by  men.  The  animals, 
the  birds,  even  the  savage,  can  hear  more  than  we.  The 
rich,  deep  undertones  and  the  soft  overtones  which  perfect 
the   "music  of  the   spheres"   are  lost  to  our  perceptions 

83 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

altogether,  because  they  are  out  of  the  range  of  our  few 
octaves.  Likewise  the  infinite  reaches  of  the  omniscient, 
omnipresent  God  cannot  by  any  possibility  be  brought 
within  the  few  octaves  of  our  human  comprehension;  but 
all  of  God  that  we  are  capable  of  perceiving  we  find 
interpreted  to  us  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  "the 
Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us."  And  we  see 
in  the  growing  character  of  Jesus  the  moral  qualities  of 
God  perfectly  expressed.  His  sinless  and  heroic  life  shows 
us  the  wonderful  holiness,  patience,  compassion,  fearless- 
ness, and  love  of  God  himself.  These  qualities  the  human 
mind  can  learn  to  comprehend.  But  we  are  told  that  the 
Christ,  when  he  became  man,  "emptied  himself";  that 
is,  the  divine  Spirit  gave  up  infinite  power  and  wisdom 
and  omnipresence,  for  a  human  body  must  be  localized 
in  space  and  be  limited  necessarily  in  power  and  in  knowl- 
edge. To  redeem  the  world  Jesus  did  not  need  these 
natural  attributes  of  God.  It  is  the  moral  life  of  God, 
revealed  in  Christ,  which  brings  men  to  their  knees  for 
redemption.  It  is  because  our  Father  God  is  like  Jesus 
in  his  moral  character  that  we  feel  bound  to  love  him. 
When  we  know  Jesus  Christ,  we  discover  the  personal 
God,  for  he* reveals  to  us  what  God  is  like.  He  interprets 
to  our  minds  and  hearts  the  Comrade  God,  who  is  a  Per- 
sonal Spirit  of  Efficient  Good  Will,  our  Father  God. 

Have  this  mind  in  you,  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus :  who,  existing  in  the  form  of  God, 
counted  not  the  being  on  an  equality  with  God 
a  thing  to  be  grasped,  but  emptied  himself,  tak- 
ing the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in  the  like- 
ness of  men;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a 
man,  he  humbled  himself,  becoming  obedient  even 
84 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross. — Phil. 
2:5-8. 

The  soldier,  of  all  men,  needs  Christ  to  make  God  seem 
personal  to  him.  He  is  in  danger  of  worshiping  merely 
a  God  of  power,  an  impersonal  Force,  He  may  cultivate 
a  marvelous  fearlessness  in  the  midst  of  all  kinds  of 
danger.  But  the  very  majesty  of  the  awful  cataclysm 
of  physical  forces  and  high  explosives  keeps  him  mind- 
ful of  his  littleness.  And  then  the  silent  background  of 
the  starlit  night,  its  infinite  quiet  and  peace,  its  sug- 
gestion of  unlimited  reserves  of  strength — all  so  different 
from  the  chaos  among  men — compel  him  to  feel,  at 
moments  of  lonely  leisure,  the  sublime  presence  of  a  God 
of  unmeasured,  undreamed-of  power.  This  discovery 
sobers  and  humbles  the  soldier  boy.  It  fills  his  soul  for 
the  time  being  with  awe  and  a  feeling  of  reverence.  It 
often  brings  him  to  his  knees  in  prayer.  But  this  ex- 
perience is  likely  to  be  only  temporary  and  to  have  little 
effect  upon  character,  if  it  goes  no  deeper.  The  soldier's 
God  of  Power  must  be  translated  for  him  into  a  Comrade 
God.  Only  Jesus  Christ  can  do  this  for  him.  He  can 
teach  him  that  his  God  is  a  personal  presence,  in  whom 
he  lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being.  The  religion  of 
a  God  of  Power  is  mere  Mohammedanism,  or  lifeless 
Deism.  The  Christian's  God  is  a  person,  a  Comrade  God 
of  Efficient  Good  Will.  He  is  brought  near  to  the  soul 
by  our  knowledge  of  Jesus  the  Christ. 

The  Reconciling  God  in  Christ 

Wherefore  if  any  man  is  in  Christ,  he  is  a 
new  creature:  the  old  things  are  passed  away; 
85 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

behold,  they  are  become  new.  But  all  things  are 
of  God,  who  reconciled  us  to  himself  through 
Christ,  and  gave  unto  us  the  ministry  of  recon- 
ciliation; to  wit,  that  God  was  in  Christ  recon- 
ciling the  world  unto  himself,  not  reckoning  unto 
them  their  trespasses,  and  having  committed  unto 
us  the  word  of  reconciliation. — II  Cor.  5 :  17-19. 

This  is  the  heart  of  the  great  truth  of  the  incarnation, 
the  fact  of  God  in  life.  It  is  great  for  a  man  to  discover 
God  present  in  the  midst  of  this  world.  It  gives  new 
confidence  to  faith  when  a  man  discovers  God's  leader- 
ship in  life  and  history.  It  gives  unity  and  consistency 
to  a  man's  thinking  when  he  discovers  God  in  all  the 
natural  laws  of  lifcL.  But  we  really  find  the  Comrade  God 
when  he  is  revealed  to  us  through  Jesus  Christ.  The 
heart  of  Christianity  is  the  great  truth  that  "God  was  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself." 

This  great  word  of  Scripture  is  sometimes  called 
"essential  Christianity."  It  contains  the  heart  of  the 
Gospel,  the  good  news  of  God.  It  is  the  key  which  un- 
locks the  mystery  of  Christ's  life  and  death  and  their 
meaning  for  us.  God  was  in  Jesus  Christ  for  a  purpose. 
His  purpose  was  to  "reconcile  the  world  unto  himself." 
This  shows  how  the  Christian  religion  is  exactly  the 
opposite  of  all  pagan  faiths.  In  every  pagan  religion  the 
acts  of  worship,  sacrifices,  burnt  offerings,  acts  of  magic, 
elaborate  performance  of  ritual,  are  all  for  one  purpose: 
to  placate  the  anger  of  the  gods  and  purchase  their  favor. 
Sometimes  heathen  tribes  worship  both  good  gods  and 
bad.  The  gods  they  imagine  as  good  and  benevolent  they 
neglect,  for  why  should  they  bother  with  a  god  who  will 
do  them  no  harm?     So  they  devote  their  attention  to  the 

86 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

evil  gods,  whose  revengeful  passions  they  fear.  They 
offer  rich  offerings  and  make  elaborate  vows;  they  tor- 
ture themselves  recklessly  before  the  bloody  pagan  altar, 
to  show  the  depth  of  their  zeal,  in  order  that  the  anger 
of  their  god  may  be  appeased.  Evidently  their  god  is 
their  devil.  They  cannot  love  him.  Secretly  perhaps 
they  hate  him.  But,  imaginary  though  he  is,  he  holds 
them  in  the  grip  of  a  superstitious  terror.  They  imagine 
that  he  sends  all  the  troubles  and  evils  that  afflict  their 
poor  ignorant  lives,  so  they  beg  for  his  mercy.  When 
defeated  by  their  enemies,  they  feel  that  their  god  has 
punished  them  in  a  fit  of  passion,  so  they  redouble  their 
pious  exertions  to  win  back  his  favor  and  overcome  his 
jealous  anger  over  their  neglect.    This  is  paganism. 

Did  Jesus  Die  to  Make  God  Goodf 

We  find  a  good  deal  of  latent  paganism  lurking  in  the 
hearts  of  Christian  people.  They  try  to  bargain  with 
God.  Their  prayers  often  are  but  the  cries  of  fear,  beg- 
ging God  to  change  his  wrath  toward  them  into  personal 
favor.  They  pray  to  or  through  Jesus  Christ,  whom  they 
love  and  trust,  to  almighty  God  whom  they  only  fear, 
because  they  really  do  not  know  him.  They  imagine  that 
somehow  Christ  died  to  placate  God  and  to  get  God  to 
take  a  loving  interest  in  men.  The  atonement  they  un- 
derstand as  the  price  Christ  paid  for  us  to  reconcile  God 
and  get  him  to  forgive  us.  But  this  would  be  essential 
paganism.  It  casts  a  grievous  shadow  over  the  very  face 
of  God.  If  such  folks  only  knew  God,  they  could  not 
think  so  badly  and  unkindly  of  him.  They  forget  that 
the  Christian's  God  is  the  Father  of  Jesus  Christ,  our 

87 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Father  God,  "the  God  of  all  comfort  and  the  Father  of 
mercies."  He  does  not  need  to  be  placated  or  his  anger 
appeased.  The  whole  aim  of  the  great  atonement  is  in 
the  other  direction.  "Jesus  died,  not  to  make  God  good, 
but  to  make  us  good."  God's  heart  needed  no  changing, 
no  reconciling.  He  is  always  ready  to  forgive  if  we  will 
let  him.  No  true  father  ever  needs  to  be  reconciled  to 
his  children.  The  truth  of  the  whole  matter  lies  in  this 
wonderful  sentence  of  Paul :  "God  was  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself."  In  Christ  we  see  infinite 
Love  serving  and  suffering  for  men ;  which  is  another  way 
of  saying  that  the  Christ,  who  was  living  the  human  life 
of  God,  was  doing  his  utmost,  all  that  love  could  do,  to 
win  the  wandering  children  of  God  back  to  their  Father's 
heart  and  home. 

Now  when  the  Pharisee  that  had  bidden  him 
saw  it,  he  spake  within  himself,  saying.  This  man, 
if  he  were  a  prophet,  would  have  perceived  who 
and  what  manner  of  woman  this  is  that  toucheth 
him,  that  she  is  a  sinner.  And  Jesus  answering 
said  unto  him,  Simon,  I  have  somewhat  to  say 
unto  thee.  And  he  saith.  Teacher,  say  on.  A  cer- 
tain lender  had  two  debtors:  the  one  owed  five 
hundred  shillings,  and  the  other  fifty.  When  they 
had  not  wherewith  to  pay,  he  forgave  them  both. 
Which  of  them  therefore  will  love  him  most? 
Simon  answered  and  said,  He,  I  suppose,  to  whom 
he  forgave  the  most.  And  he  said  unto  him, 
Thou  hast  rightly  judged.  .  .  .  Wherefore  I  say 
unto  thee,  Her  sins,  which  are  many,  are  for- 
given; for  she  loved  much:  but  to  whom  little  is 
forgiven,  the  same  loveth  little.  And  he  said  unto 
her,  Thy  sins  are  forgiven.  And  they  that  sat 
88 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

at  meat  with  him  began  to  say  within  themselves, 
Who  is  this  that  even  forgiveth  sins?  And  he 
said  unto  the  woman,  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee; 
go  in  peace.— Luke  7 :  39-43,  47-50. 

This  gospel  of  ready  forgiveness,  the  good  news  of  a 
Father-God  always  ready  to  forgive,  is  sometimes  called 
a  weak  gospel.  Some  pharisaic  elder  brothers,  complacent 
in  their  smug  sense  of  goodness,  object  to  too  free  offers 
of  the  divine  forgiveness.  To  be  sure,  their  spiritual 
stinginess  cannot  change  the  facts !  God  still  forgives 
the  penitent  in  spite  of  them !  But  some  of  us  need  to 
have  more  faith  in  the  honesty  and  permanence  of 
penitence,  and  the  power  of  forgiveness  to  win  a  man's 
grateful  loyalty  to  God.  We  all  know  that  the  tender- 
hearted Lincoln  was  often  accused  of  too  great  clemency. 
Dr.  Fosdick  quotes  an  instance.  A  certain  Union  soldier 
had  deserted,  was  recaptured  and  sentenced  to  be  shot. 
He  appealed  to  the  President  for  pardon,  promised  to  be 
loyal-  and  true  in  the  future,  and  j\Ir.  Lincoln,  with  faith 
in  the  man,  pardoned  him,  giving  him  this  letter: 

''Executive   Mansion, 

Oct.  4,  1864. 
Upon  condition  that  Roswell  Mclntyre  of  Co.  E,  6th 
Reg't  of  New  York  Cavalry,  returns  to  his  Regiment  and 
faithfully  serves  out  his  term,  making  up  for  lost  time, 
or  until  otherwise  discharged,  he  is  fully  pardoned  for  any 
supposed  desertion  heretofore  committed,  and  this  paper 
is  his  pass  to  go  to  his  Regiment. 

Abraham  Lincoln." 

"Was  such  clemency,"  asks  Dr.  Fosdick,  "an  occasion  for 

89 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

lax  character?  The  answer  is  written  across  the  face  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  in  the  archives :  Taken  from  the  body 
of  R.  Mclntyre  at  the  battle  of  Five  Forks,  Va.,  1865.' 
Five  Forks  was  the  last  cavalry  action  of  the  war;  Mc- 
lntyre went  through  to  the  finish.  Anyone  who  knows  the 
experience  of  being  forgiven  understands  the  motives  that 
so  remake  a  pardoned  deserter.  The  relief  from  the  old 
crushing  condemnation,  the  joy  of  being  trusted  again 
beyond  desert,  the  gratitude  that  makes  men  rather  die 
than  be  untrue  a  second  time  .  .  .  this  is  the  moral  con- 
sequence of  being  pardoned.'" 

No,  a  gospel  of  forgiveness  is  not  a  weak  gospel. 
God's  pardon  is  a  mighty  moral  motive  for  us  all.  So  it 
is  the  mission  of  the  living  Christ  ever  to  reconcile  men 
to  their  Father  God,  who  needs  no  reconciling,  but  waits 
to  welcome  them  back  to  his  presence,  his  unfailing  for- 
giveness and  love.  Jesus  told  his  disciples,  "He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  Christians  must  never 
forget  that  God  is  like  Jesus,  in  all  his  moral  qualities, 
in  his  perfect  character.  Perhaps  this  is  what  Beecher 
meant  in  his  vivid  statement,  "The  only  God  I  know  is 
Jesus  Christ."  Certainly  the  only  personal  God  we  can 
know  is  the  God  whom  Jesus  teaches  and  reveals  to  us, 
the  God  who  was  unveiled  in  Christ's  perfect  life.  We 
must  know  Jesus,  therefore,  in  order  to  feel  sure  that  our 
God,  whose  Presence  we  feel,  is  really  a  Person.  Only 
through  knowing  Christ  are  we  led  to  realize  that  our 
God  is  not  a  mere  aggregation  of  awful  forces  and  im- 
personal cosmic  power,  but  a  throbbing,  thinking,  feeling, 
loving  Personal  Presence  of  Efficient  Good  Will. 


2  "The  Meaning  of  Faith,"  p.  260. 

90 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

A  Soldier's  Discovery  of  God  through  Christ 

Therefore  seeing  we  have  this  ministry,  even 
as  we  obtained  mercy,  we  faint  not:  but  we  have 
renounced  the  hidden  things  of  shame,  not  walk- 
ing in  craftiness,  nor  handling  the  word  of  God 
deceitfully;  but  by  the  manifestation  of  the  truth 
commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God.  And  even  if  our  gospel  is 
veiled,  it  is  veiled  in  them  that  perish :  in  whom 
the  god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of 
the  unbelieving,  that  the  light  of  the  gospel  of 
the  glory  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God, 
should  not  dawn  upon  them.  For  we  preach  not 
ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  as  Lord,  and  ourselves 
as  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake.  Seeing  it  is 
God,  that  said,  Light  shall  shine  out  of  darkness, 
who  shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ. — II  Cor.  4:  1-6. 

In  the  same  suggestive  book  which  we  have  quoted 
above,  Mr.  Eddy  gives  us  an  interesting  instance  which 
is  doubtless  typical  of  many.  He  speaks  of  the  vagueness 
of  the  soldiers'  religion  at  the  front.  He  speaks  of  their 
moments  of  deep  impressions,  which  alternate  with  their 
days  of  careless  neglect.  He  refers  to  their  deep  long- 
ings, intuitions,  and  hunger  of  heart,  and  the  fact  that 
the  moment  anyone  begins  to  attack  religion  or  start  a 
discussion  upon  vital  themes,  the  men  show  at  once  that 
they  have  been  doing  some  thinking  of  their  own  in 
private.  He  says,  "Most  of  them  believe  in  God,  although 
they  do  not  know  Him  in  a  personal  way.  They  believe 
in  religion,  but  have  not  made  it  vital  and  dominant  in 

91 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

their  lives.  They  have  a  vague  sense  or  intuition  that 
there  is  a  God  and  that  He  is  a  good  God,  round  about 
and  above  them.  He  is  looked  upon,  however,  not  as  One 
whom  they  are  to  seek  first,  but  rather  as  a  last  resort; 
not  as  a  present  Father  and  constant  Friend,  but  as  One 
to  whom  they  can  turn  in  time  of  need.  .  .  .  They  revere 
God  from  afar  off  and  in  one  compartment  of  their  being, 
but  .they  have  never  opened  their  lives  to  Him.  They 
have  a  reverence  for  Him  in  the  face  of  death,  in  the 
hour  of  need  and  in  the  great  crises  of  life.  Most  of 
them  like  to  sing  the  Christian  hymns  on  Sunday  eve- 
ning and  have  thoughts  of  home  and  of  loved  ones  that 
are  sacred.  They  do  not  feel  that  they  have  come  into 
close  personal  relations  wath  God,  but  neither  do  they 
consciously  feel  that  they  are  out  of  relation  with 
Him.  .  .  . 

Before  us  as  we  write  lies  the  photograph  of  a  young 
sergeant.  Before  the  war  he  was  an  atheist,  an  illegiti- 
maft  child,  a  member  of  the  criminal  class.  But  in  the 
trenches  he  found  God.  Blown  up  by  a  mine,  for  sixteen 
days  he  lost  the  power  of  speech  and  of  memory.  He 
returned  from  the  front  with  a  deep  sense  of  God,  but 
with  no  personal,  vital  relationship  to  Christ.  He  eagerly 
\velcomed  the  first  real  message  that  went  straight  to  his 
heart,  and  the  personal  word  of  loving  sympathy  which 
led  him  to  relate  his  deep  experience  of  the  trenches  to 
the  presence  of  the  living  Christ.  All  this  man  needed 
was  someone  to  interpret  to  him  his  own  experience,  and 
bring  him  into  the  relationship  with  God  which  his  own 
heart  craved  and  longed  for.''^ 


3  "With  Our  Soldiers  in  France,"  pp.  144-146. 

92 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

This  young  man  had  been  brought  to  feel  God's  infinite, 
powerful  presence  in  the  titanic  forces  of  the  battle  field, 
but  could  not  understand  God  or  know  him  as  a  great 
loving  Person,  until  he  came  to  know  Jesus  Christ  and  see 
in  him  the  face  of  the  Comrade  God.  Mr.  Eddy  had  the 
great  joy  of  leading  him  to  Christ.  Then  Christ  led  him 
to  God,  or  rather  interpreted  the  character  of  the  mighty 
God  of  whom  he  had  already  become  conscious  in  his 
life.  Then  the  great  Power  became  a  loving  personal 
Presence. 

The  Great  Comrade  of  the  Way 

If  ye  love  me,  ye  will  keep  my  commandments. 
And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you 
another  Comforter,  that  he  may  be  with  you  for 
ever,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth:  whom  the  world 
cannot  receive ;  for  it  beholdeth  him  not,  neither 
knoweth  him:  ye  know  him;  for  he  abideth  with 
you,  and  shall  be  in  you.  I  will  not  leave  you 
desolate:  I  come  unto  you. — ^John  14:15-18. 

A  truly  religious  life  is  not  one  which  has  occasional 
fits  of  piety,  and  prays  only  in  moments  of  danger,  coming 
to  God  only  as  a  last  resort.  This  i^  hardly  the  brave 
man's  way.  The  religious  life  is  more  constant  than  that. 
It  is  by  finding  God  to  be  a  life  comrade  that  we  learn 
to  trust  him  in  danger. 

By  "practicing  the  presence  of  God"  we  come  to  feel 
him  as  a  part  of  our  ordinary  life;  and  soon  we  find 
that  all  our  life  is  God-guided  and  protected,  and  this 
brings  us  peace  within,  though  war  may  rage  with- 
out. 

93 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

"Where  is  your  Lord? 
Seated  on  God's  right  hand, 
Captain  of  Heaven's  host, 
Directing  campaigns  grand 
On  some  removed  coast 
Of  Eternity's  vast  sea — 
So  far  above 
Man's  highest  love 
He  cannot  reached  be? 

Where  is  your  Lord  ? 
At  God's  right  hand  in  sooth: 
W^here'er  his  servants  brave 
Are  fighting  for  the  truth, 
That  all  the  world  may  have 
His  larger  life.    'Tis  here 

The  Christ  is  found: 

His  accents  sound 
Within  your  soul — so  near  ! 

Where  is  your  Lord  ? 
Within  the  daily  round 
Of  duty.     God's  command 
For  you  just  now's  the  sound 
Of  the  Master's  voice.     Stand 
To  yoAir  hard  task !     Be  true 

To  your  ideal ! 

God's  will's  the  real — 
Your  Lord  dwells  there  for  you."* 

Herein  is  the  secret  of  the  strong  life,  the  Christian 
life  which  is  dauntless  and  victorious.  It  is  by  feeling  sure 
that  our  Lord  is  with  us  as  he  promised,  that  we  are  able 

*  Doremus  Scudder,  quoted  in  Bosworth's  "Thirty  Studies  About  Jesus," 
p.  170. 

94 


THE  COMRADE  GOD  THROUGH  CHRIST 

to  face  with  courage  whatever  the  day's  work  may  bring 
us.  It  should  not  be  difficult  to  convince  ourselves  that 
if  we  are  in  the  path  of  duty  our  Lord  is  by  our  side. 
If  we  are  at  a  post  of  dangerous  responsibility,  he  is  surely 
with  us.  If  we  are  at  our  post,  covering  our  personal 
sector  in  the  great  battle-line  of  the  democracy  of  God, 
we  may  be  certain  we  are  not  alone.  Our  great  Comrade 
of  the  Way  is  sharing  our  vigil,  our  burden,  our  anxiety. 
He  is  making  holy  every  common  task,  which  we  have 
accepted  with  devoted  spirit,  and  transfiguring  this  task 
by  the  radiance  of  his  presence. 

And  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world. — Matt.  28 :  20b. 

"War  worn  I  kneel  tonight, 
Lord,  by  thine  altar ! 
Oh,  in  tomorrow's  fight 

Let  me  not  falter ! 
Bless  my  dark  arms  for  me, 
Christ,  King  of  Chivalry  !" 
—Alfred  Xoyes,  "The  Old  Knight's  Vigil." 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

What  do  you  think  of  the  French  painting  of  "The 
Two  Saviors"?  What  is  the  subtle  danger  in  the  new 
heresy,  "Redemption  by  battle  death"?  Can  a  single 
brave  act  make  character  over  new? 

How  does  Jesus  help  you  to  feel  sure  that  God  is  a 
person? 

What  divine  qualities  did  Jesus  show  the  world  in  their 
perfectness?  What  do  you  think  Paul  means  when  he 
says  Jesus  "emptied  himself"  and  assumed  human  form? 

95 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

What  great  verse  of  Paul's  is  sometimes  called  "essen- 
tial Christianity''  ?  What  is  the  aim  and  purpose  of 
heathen  worship  ?  How  does  Christianity  then  differ  from 
paganism  ? 

Who  was  to  be  reconciled  by  Jesus'  death?  Did  he  die 
to  change  God's  mind  or  heart?  How  does  an  undeserved 
forgiveness  brace  you  up  to  do  your  moral  best? 

Do  you  think  of  God  as  a  sort  of  last  resort  in  emer- 
gencies, or  as  a  constant  friend? 

What  is  meant  by  the  phrase  "practicing  the  presence 
of  God"?  In  times  of  danger  and  responsibility,  can  you 
feel  that  Christ  shares  your  vigil? 


96 


CHAPTER  VI 

FINDING  CHRIST'S  POWER  TO  SAVE 
FROM  SIN 

A  Sin  Cure:  The  First  Test  of  Religion 

We  all  know,  in  moments  when  we  are  frank  with  our- 
selves, that  our  great  enemy  is  sin.  It  bars  every  gate, 
whatever  be  our  aim  and  purpose  in  life.  If  happiness 
is  our  supreme  good,  sin  blocks  the  way;  if  our  purpose 
is  goodness  and  high  character,  sin  is  what  defeats  our 
purpose;  if  an  efficient,  useful  life  is  our  aim,  our  most 
effective  enemy,  which  makes  us  miss  our  aim,  is  sin,  our 
personal  sin.  It  gradually  cankers  the  virtue  in  our  life. 
It  cuts  the  nerve  of  our  physical  strength  and  mental 
efficiency.  It  coarsens  our  whole  nature  and  makes  selfish 
our  heart.  It  takes  the  joy  out  of  life.  It  destroys  ap- 
preciation of  true  happiness,  and  even  the  pleasures  of 
sense  gradually  fade  and  pall  when  evil  habits  paralyze 
the  feelings  and  deaden  the  nerves.  The  wages  of  sin 
is  death;  for  sin  is  a  fatal  disease  of  the  human  spirit. 

Blessed  is  the  man  that  endureth  temptation; 
for  when  he  hath  been  approved,  he  shall  receive 
the  crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  promised  to 
them  that  love  him.  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is 
tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God ;  for  God  cannot  be 
tempted  with  evil,  and  he  himself  tempteth  no 
man :  but  each  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn 
away  by  his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  Then  the  lust, 
97 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

when  it  hath  conceived,  beareth  sin:  and  the  sin, 
when  it  is  fullgrown,  bringeth  forth  death. — 
James  i :  12-15. 

Sin  is  not  confined  to  any  one  level  of  society.  It  is 
found  among  all  classes.  Dr.  Fosdick  vividly  says,  "Sin 
has  many  aliases  and  can  swiftly  shift  its  guise  to  gain 
a  welcome  into  any  company.  Sin  in  the  slums  is  grossj 
and  terrible.  It  staggers  down  the  streets,  blasphemes 
with  oaths  that  can  be  heard,  wallows  in  vice  unmen- 
tionable by  modest  lips.  Then  some  day  prosperity  may 
visit  it.  It  moves  to  a  finer  residence,  seeks  the  suburbs, 
or  finds  domicile  on  a  college  campus.  It  changes  all  its 
clothes.  No  longer  is  it  indecent  and  obscene.  Its  speech 
is  mild,  its  civility  is  irreproachable.  It  gathers  a  com- 
pany of  friends  who  minister  to  pleasure  and  respecta- 
bility, and  the  cry  of  the  world's  need  dies  unheard  at 
its  peaceful  door.  It  presses  its  face  continually  through 
the  pickets  of  social  allowance,  like  a  bad  boy  who  wishes 
to  trespass  on  forbidden  ground  but  fears  the  consequence. 
Its  goodness  is  superficial  seeming;  at  heart  it  is  as  bad  as 
it  dares  to  be.  It  has  completely  changed  its  garments, 
but  it  is  the  same  sin — indulgent,  selfish,  and  unclean. 
Sin,  as  anyone  can  easily  observe,  takes  a  very  high 
polish."^ 

But  this  disease  is  not  incurable,  and  it  is  the  first 
business  of  religion  to  cure  it.  A  religion  which  has  no 
remedy  for  this,  our  worst  disease,  is  not  really  a  religion 
at  all.  It  is  merely  a  social  veneer  of  respectability,  and 
an  anesthetic  for  conscience.  The  sure  test  of  genuine 
religion  is  its  power  over  sin.    Inferior  types  of  religion 

1  "The  Meaning  of  Faith,"  p.  251. 

98 


FINDING  CHRIST'S  POWER  TO  SAVE 

merely  ignore  sin  altogether,  and  deal  with  magic  and 
superstition;  but  all  the  great  religions  of  history  are 
redemptive  religions.  They  have  something  to  say  about 
sin,  and  some  remedy  to  offer  for  the  great  disease. 
Buddha,  Zoroaster,  and  Mohammed,  Moses  and  Christ, 
all  recognized  sin  as  the  great  enemy  of  humanity,  and 
the  priests  of  these  five  greatest  faiths  have  tried  to  help 
men  get  rid  of  their  spiritual  burdens.  By  enforcing  the 
rules  of  penance  and  fasting,  prayer  and  confession,  strict 
ritual  and  stringent  obedience,  non-Christian  faiths  have 
struggled  with  the  problem  of  getting  rid  of  sin,  but  the 
task  has  been  too  great  for  them.  They  have  doubtless, 
at  their  best,  reduced  the  virulence  of  the  disease,  but 
they  have  not  been  able  to  cure  it. 

We  discover  this  to  be  true  among  the  Sikh  soldiers 
from  India,  fighting  under  England  in  France.  Joseph 
Callan,  father  of  the  Red  Triangle  work,  came  with  them 
in  that  first  expedition  from  India,  and  set  up  the  first 
Christian  Association  tent  at  the  front.  Even  with  strict 
supervision,  vice  crept  into  the  camp  and  there  was  an 
outbreak  of  drunkenness  and  immorality  among  the  Sikhs. 
In  order  to  furnish  warning  as  well  as  severe  punishment, 
the  commander  called  out  the  whole  garrison  of  25,000 
troops  to  witness  the  public  flogging  of  these  offenders. 
The  Sikh  soldiers  felt  very  much  disgraced  and  held 
a  council  in  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  hut, 
after  which  they  asked  to  have  an  Association  secretary 
speak  to  them  all  on  the  subject  of  temperance  and  purity. 
After  an  earnest  address  of  an  hour  and  a  half,  though 
the  preaching  of  Christian  doctrines  was  officially  for- 
bidden, the  moral  results  were  surprising.  "A  remarkable 
scene  of  repentance  was  witnessed,"'  says  an  eye-witness. 

99 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

**Men  arose  on  all  hands,  confessing  their  sins  in  respect 
to  these  two  special  failings,  and  requested  that  penalties 
be  imposed  on  them  by  their  own  priest  in  accordance 
with  the  custom  of  their  religion,  as  a  punishment  for  the 
past  and  as  a  guarantee  for  the  future.  For  nearly  two 
hours  the  men  filed  past  their  priest  receiving  penalties. 
Later  on  they  held  a  service  of  their  own  in  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  hut  on  Christmas  day  and 
took  up  a  large  collection  of  copper  coins  as  a  thank- 
offering  to  the  Association.  They  felt  it  had  been  their 
one  friend  in  a  strange  land."  Here  we  see  repentance 
and  penance  helping  men  to  live  better,  even  under  the 
forms  of  a  rather  high-grade  heathen  faith.  Yet  the 
result  must  have  been  very  far  from  what  we  know  as 
Christian  character.  Sin  was  for  the  time  suppressed, 
but  not  conquered.  It  takes  more  than  penance  to  redeem 
from  sin. 

For  our  wrestling  is  not  against  flesh  and 
blood,  but  against  the  principalities,  against  the 
powers,  against  the  world-rulers  of  this  darkness, 
against  the  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness  in  the 
heavenly  places.  Wherefore  take  up  the  whole 
armor  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand 
in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all,  to  stand. 
Stand  therefore,  having  girded  your  loins  with 
truth,  and  having  put  on  the  breastplate  of  right- 
eousness, and  having  shod  your  feet  with  the 
preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace;  withal  taking 
up  the  shield  of  faith,  wherewith  ye  shall  be  able 
to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  evil  one.  And 
take  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God :  with  all  prayer 
and  supplication  praying  at  all  seasons  in  the 
100 


FINDING  CHRIST'S  POWER  TO  SAVE 

Spirit,  and  watching  thereunto  in  all  perseverance 
and  supplication  for  all  the  saints. — Eph.  6 :  12-18. 

Evil  Habit,  the  Death  Grip  of  Sin 

The  reason  sin  gets  the  strangle-hold  on  so  many  men 
is  because  we  are  creatures  of  habit.  The  evil  impulses 
are  strong,  and  when  indulged  they  soon  form  habits  which 
speedily  become  second  nature.  Every  time  the  sin  is 
repeated,  or  even  rehearsed  in  imagination,  it  grooves  the 
brain-paths  deeper,  so  that  the  next  time  temptation  comes, 
it  is  more  difficult  than  ever  to  resist  it.  We  soon  be- 
come slaves,  bound  by  shackles  of  our  own  forging.  The 
problem  of  redemption  is  to  break  those  shackles.  Xo 
one  has  ever  put  more  plainly  the  bitter  experience  of  this 
strangle-hold  of  sin  than  St.  Paul: 

I  am  carnal,  sold  under  sin.  For  that  which 
I  do  I  know  not:  for  not  what  I  would,  that  do 
I  practise;  but  what  I  hate,  that  I  do.  But  if 
what  I  would  not,  that  I  do,  I  consent  unto  the 
law  that  it  is  good.  So  now  it  is  no  more  I  that 
do  it,  but  sin  which  dwelleth  in  me.  For  I  know 
that  in  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh,  dwelleth  no  good 
thing:  for  to  will  is  present  with  me,  but  to  do 
that  which  is  good  is  not.  For  the  good  which 
I  would  I  do  not:  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not, 
that  I  practise.  But  if  what  I  would  not,  that  I 
do,  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  which 
dwelleth  in  me.  I  find  then  the  law,  that,  to  me 
who  would  do  good,  evil  is  present.  For  I  de- 
light in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man :  but 
I  see  a  different  law  in  my  members,  warring 
against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
101 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

captivity  under  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my 
members.  Wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall 
deliver  me  out  of  the  body  of  this  death? — Rom. 
7:14-24. 

This  cry  for  deliverance  from  the  fatal  disease  of  sin 
is  a  bitter  cry.  The  bitterness  of  it  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  sin  and  evil  habits  had  grown  stronger  than  Paul's 
best  self.  He  felt  sin  to  be  an  evil  giant  within  him, 
strangling  to  death  his  better  nature.  With  such  habits, 
his  good  intentions  to  do  better  were  weak  and  powerless. 
Wishing  to  be  good  accomplished  nothing.  Thinking  it 
was  right  to  do  right  accomplished  nothing.  His  bad 
habits  were  in  command  and  he  had  to  obey  them,  for 
they  had  got  their  roots  deep  down  into  his  life  and 
mastered  him.  The  mystery  of  it  all  was,  why  could  he 
no  longer  do  what  he  wanted  to  ?  Why  was  he  no  longer 
his  own  master?  He  felt  as  though  some  evil  spirit  had 
got  control  of  his  life.  But  it  was  only  the  evil  spirit  of 
his  own  bad  habits,  which  his  own  sinful  life  had  made, 
until  they  had  become  too  strong  to  break  without  help. 

Sin  Its  Own  Worst  Penalty 

For  centuries  men  have  debated  the  question  of  the 
adequate  punishment  for  sin.  Whether  sin  is  viewed  as 
selfishness,  disobedience  to  law,  or  separation  from  God's 
loving  presence,  it  calls  for  severe  penalty.  The  imagina- 
tions of  men  have  suggested  punishments  varying  from 
freezing  cold  to  burning  heat,  from  immediate  annihila- 
tion at  death  to  a  lingering  eternity  of  everlasting  physical 
torture — quite  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  after  the  body 
dies  the  human  spirit  will  feel  neither  heat  nor  cold  nor 

102 


FINDING  CHRISrS  POWER  TO  SAVE 

physical  pain.  We  must  accept  such  descriptive  lan- 
guage as  the  ''lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,"  as  merely 
figurative.  It  is  an  attempt  to  put  in  vivid,  physical  terms 
a  purely  mental  experience,  the  torture  of  the  soul,  not 
the  body,  of  the  impenitent. 

There  are,  to  be  sure,  inevitable  physical  results  of  sin 
in  this  world,  such  as  the  vengeance  taken  by  an  out- 
raged body  when  the  physical  laws  of  life  are  broken. 
And  there  are  the  pains  of  memory  which  we  call  re- 
morse, the  most  refined  type  of  spiritual  torture.  But 
serious  as  are  these  penalties,  the  most  natural  result  of 
sin  and  its  most  awful  penalty  is  the  continuance  of  sin 
itself.  No  prospect  could  be  more  horrible  than  to  keep 
on  sinning  through  eternity,  the  victims  of  our  own  evil 
habits  which  we  are  powerless  to  break.  Thus  sin  tends 
to  become  its  own  terrible  punishment.  The  law  of  habit 
shows  how  relentlessly  this  works  out  in  this  present  life, 
and  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  death  will  continue 
it  in  the  future.  This  is  the  plain  teaching  of  the  closing 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  which  refers  to  the  day  of  fate  when 
earth-formed  habits  become  fixed  and  irrevocable : 

For  the  time  is  at  hand.  He  that  is  unright- 
eous, let  him  do  unrighteousness  still :  and  he  that 
is  filthy,  let  him  be  made  filthy  still:  and  he  that 
is  righteous,  let  him  do  righteousness  still :  and 
he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  made  holy  still.  Be- 
hold, I  come  quickly;  and  my  reward  is  with  me, 
to  render  to  each  man  according  as  his  work  is. 
— Rev.  22:  II,  12. 

What  sentence  could  be  more  awful  or  more  just  than 
this   decree   that   a   man   elect   his   own    penalty   and   be 

103 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

punished  by  his  own  •  sin  ?  Thus  we  see  that  we  are 
punished  most,  not  for  our  sins,  but  by  our  sins.  Sin, 
then,  is  the  most  fearful  thing  in  all  the  world.  Many 
have  worried  over  the  "unpardonable  sin,"  puzzled  by  the 
word  of  Jesus,  but  the  only  person  whom  a  Father-God 
cannot  forgive  is  he  who  clings  to  evil  habits  and  will 
not  quit  his  sin.  The  willingness  to  give  up  sinning 
makes  forgiveness  possible.  Yet  the  power  to  break  off 
evil  habits,  and  to  be  redeemed  from  sin,  must  be  stronger 
than  the  power  of  a  wish;  and  it  must  be  found  outside 
ourselves.  Many  a  slave  of  sin  has  cried  out  with  Paul, 
"Wretched  man  that  I  am !  Who  shall  deliver  me  out  of 
the  body  of  this  death?"  There  is  but  one  answer:  'T 
thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

The  Present  Worth  of  the  Savior  Christ 

And  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus;  for  it  is 
he  that  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins. — 
Matt.  1 :2i. 

All  through  the  Christian  centuries  men  have  called 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  their  Savior  from  sin.  Unless  he  had 
earned  this  title,  he  never  could  have  kept  it  all  these 
years.  But  we  find  he  deserves  this  title,  for  he  has  had 
marvelous  power  to  lift  men  above  their  evil  habits.  He 
has  given  moral  courage  to  men  and  the  spiritual  power 
to  meet  and  overcome  temptation.  No  other  moral  force 
in  history  has  equaled  the  saving  power  of  Jesus  Christ, 
for  rescuing  and  redeeming  character.  Well  may  we  join 
in  the  great  confession:  "There  is  none  other  name  under 
heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved" 
(Acts  4: 12). 

104 


FINDING  CHRISTS  POWER  TO  SAVE 

In  the  soft  days  before  the  war,  culture  and  respect- 
abihty  were  apt  to  vaunt  themselves  as  substitutes  for 
salvation.  Sin  veneered  by  conventional  social  custom 
became  respectable  and  the  great  fact  was  sometimes 
obscured,  which  our  fathers  used  to  stress,  that  "all  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God"  (Rom.  3:  23). 
Jesus  for  many  was  accepted  as  the  great  Teacher,  but 
not  as  personal  Savior.  This  was  perhaps  more  natural 
in  days  of  easy  prosperity,  when  ideals  were  not  quite 
so  regnant  as  today,  and  the  deeper  notes  of  experience 
were  less  often  struck;  while  many  of  us  alternated  be- 
tween frivolous  pleasures  and  the  feverish  pursuit  of 
wealth.  But  those  days  are  gone.  The  sterner  days  of 
war  have  brought  us  back  to  reality.  Confronted  by  the 
daily  challenge  to  face  danger,  to  suffer  hardships,  to 
accept  sacrifice  as  the  rule  of  life,  and  all  the  war  dis- 
ciplines at  home  as  well  as  at  the  front,  we  have  come 
back  afresh  to  the  great  facts  and  forces  of  religion. 

Men  are  discovering  anew  their  need  of  Christ.  They 
are  not  only  finding  comfort  in  his  teachings  to  help  them 
in  these  days  of  strain,  but  they  are  also  finding  his 
power  to  save  from  sin.  This  is  shown  in  the  greater 
frankness  of  men  with  one  another,  their  increased  ear- 
nestness of  purpose,  and  their  ready  willingness  to  re- 
spond to  religious  appeals.  Whatever  else  the  war  has 
done,  it  has  put  an  end  to  a  superficial  age ;  it  has  brought 
us  face  to  face  with  facts;  it  has  taught  us  that  in  our 
life  of  uncertain  futures  and  of  moral  stress  and  weakness, 
we  sorely  need  a  Savior,  a  divine  Helper  and  Friend. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  never  worth  more  to  the  world 
than  now.  Never  was  he  more  evidently  in  the  thick  of 
the  human  struggle. 

105 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Christ  in  the  Army  Hospitals 

The  book  of  the  acts  of  the  apostles  is  never  ended. 
The  story  of  redemption  from  sin  by  the  power  of  Christ 
is  a  continuing  story  all  through  the  Christian  era.  In 
the  midst  of  the  world  war  we  are  writing  some  striking 
chapters  in  this  story.  One's  faith  is  revived  as  we  dis- 
cover the  response  the  Christ  appeal  is  winning  along  the 
western  front.  This  war,  with  all  its  hideous  revelations 
of  the  blackness  of  human  sin,  with  its  scientific  cruelty, 
its  organized  lust,  its  unrestrained  outbreaks  of  passion, 
has  also  shown  that  sinful  men  have  the  same  heart 
hungers  as  in  simpler  days,  for  the  upright  life  of  purity 
and  noble  character.  And  people  who  have  fancied  that 
"the  days  of  conversions  are  over"  and  that  no  longer 
"there  is  healing  for  the  sinner,"  but  only  "more  graces 
for  the  good,"  have  only  to  read  the  current  annals  of  the 
Red  Triangle  work  in  France  to  discover  their  mistake. 
They  will  discover  that  Christ  is  still  saving  men  from 
their  sins. 

Recent  careful  investigations  seem  to  show  that  we  are 
in  danger  of  overestimating  the  amount  of  venereal  disease 
in  army  camps.  Dr.  Max  Exner  is  of  the  opinion  that 
"'soldiers,  even  in  the  worst  armies,  show  a  lower  per- 
centage of  venereal  disease  than  the  same  group  of  men 
would  show  in  civil  life."  Americans  are  justly  proud 
of  the  remarkable  record  of  our  Army  and  Navy  in  re- 
ducing to  the  minimum  this  evil,  thanks  to  the  high  stand 
of  our  officers  and  heads  of  departments  on  this  moral 
question.  Friends  of  our  boys  overseas  should  be  thank- 
ful that  they  are  actually  safer  morally  and  physically 
than  in  civilian  life  at  home.    Recognizing  this  fact  fully, 

106 


FINDING  CHRISrS  POWER  TO  SAVE 

it  may  still  be  noted  that  some  of  the  most  striking  cases 
of  transformed  character  may  be  found  in  the  venereal 
hospitals  of  the  allied  armies.  Surely  if  Christ  can  work 
his  miracle  of  moral  healing  under  such  difficult  con- 
ditions, he  can  transform  human  character  anywhere. 

The  splendid  preventive  work  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  this  connection  is  widely  known. 
Its  all-round  ministry  to  the  human  needs  of  the  soldiers 
— helping  them  to  build  up  strong,  clean  bodies,  and 
meanwhile  serving  generously  their  normal  social  needs^ 
and  meeting  as  thoroughly  as  possible  their  intellect- 
ual and  spiritual  wants — is  greatly  reducing  immorality. 
A  striking  testimony  to  this  fact  comes  from  a  profane 
old  English  major:  "For  a  year  and  a  half  my  camp  led 
all  the  rest  as  the  worst  in  venereal  disease,  with  some 
twenty-five  fresh  cases  every  week.  The  first  week  after 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  was  opened  we 
had  only  ten  cases,  the  next  week  six,  the  third  week  only 
two,  and  it  has  not  risen  above  that  since.  Your  Associa- 
tion is  the  — • best  cure  for  this  evil !" 

Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  He  that  believeth 
on  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also;  and 
greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do;  because  I 
go  unto  the  Father. — John  14:  12. 

• 
Some  Modern  Miracles  of  Moral  Healing 

But  in  ministering  to  the  fallen  this  Christian  agency  is 
also  w^onderfully  successful.  It  is  remarkable  how  the 
love  of  Christ  wins  these  poor  fellows  in  the  army  hos- 
pitals, brings  them  out  of  their  despondency  with  a  new 
grip  on  life,  and  sends  them  forth  transformed  men.     In 

107 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

a  short  evangelistic  campaign,  there  were  over  two  hun- 
■dred  converts  in  one  hospital  where  eight  hundred  were 
under  treatment.  Profound  changes  took  place  in  the 
characters  of  these  men  before  they  left  the  camp.  A 
recent  book  by  a  Red  Triangle  leader  describes  several 
of  these  transformed  lives :  "Here  is  Dan,  a  young  chauf- 
feur, a  strong-willed,  self-sufficient  young  fellow  who 
thought  he  needed  no  help  and  no  religion.  He  has  a 
Christian  wife  at  home  to  whom  he  has  been  untrue,  for 
the  temptations  of  war  swept  him  off  his  feet  like  a  flood. 
In  the  meetings  this  week  he  turned  to  Christ  and  has 
ibeen  working  right  and  left  bringing  in  others  ever  since. 

"Beside  him  is  a  poor  fellow  whom  he  has  just  brought 
to  the  meetings.  He  went  on  leave  to  England,  only  to 
iind  his  three  children  deserted  by  his  wife,  who  had  run 
away,  untrue  to  him.  At  last  he  found  her,  and  brought 
her  home.  On  his  return  to  the  army,  he  finds  that  now 
lie  has  to  bear  here  in  the  hospital  the  vicarious  result 
lof  her  fall.  He  came  to  me  as  a  non-Christian  strug- 
rgling  with  the  problem  of  forgiveness.  Could  he  forgive 
!her  all  this  and  his  broken  home?  At  last  in  Christ  he 
iound  the  power  to  forgive,  and  took  up  his  heavy  cross. 
He  knelt  at  the  altar  of  the  little  chapel  and  yielded  up 
his  life  to  God.  Tomorrow  he  leaves  the  hospital  to 
begin  a  ne.w  life. 

"Here  is  a  young  Australian  who  was  untrue  to  his 
-wife.  When  we  first  saw  him  he  was  hardened  by  sin. 
That  night  he  yielded  to  Christ.  The  next  Sunday  we 
knelt  beside  him  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  was  a  new 
man;  his  very  face  was  changed.  He  said,  *I  have  read 
of  miracles  in  the  past,  but  there  was  never  a  greater 
miracle  than  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  my 

108 


FINDING  CHRIST'S  POWER  TO  SAVE 

heart  and  life.  I  am  a  new  man.  I  can  look  any  one  in 
the  face  today !'  Beside  him  at  that  communion  table 
knelt  a  young  gunner,  ']oe'  of  the  Royal  Field  Artillery. 
He  was  a  strong,  red-cheeked  six-footer,  winsome  and 
good  to  look  upon,  the  most  popular  in  his  battery.  Away 
from  home  among  bad  companions,  he  was  swept  off  his 
feet  and  fell.  He  has  found  Christ  here  among  the 
prodigals  in  a  far  country.  Before  leaving,  he  came  up 
to  bid  us  good-by,  saying,  'I'm  going  out  to  warn  other 
men  and  to  witness  for  Christ  to  the  end  of  my  days.' 

"Here  is  M — ,  a  young  sergeant,  who  came  up  after  the 
meeting,  with  tears  in  his  eyes.  'Sir,'  he  said,  'I  was 
never  drunk  but  once  in  my  life,  when  my  pals  were  home 
on  leave ;  and  that  once,  under  the  influence  of  drink,  I 
fell.  Here  I  am  in  the  hospital,  yet  I  am  engaged  to  a 
little  girl  at  home  who  is  as  white  as  snow.  What  is 
my  duty  in  the  matter?'  He  has  accepted  Christ  and  is 
a  changed  man. 

"Oh,  it  is  a  wonderful  sight  to  see  men  transformed 
by  this  inward  moral  miracle,  wrought  by  the  touch  of  the 
living  God." 

Surely  the  Christ  power  is  still  a  mighty  influence 
among  the  sons  of  men.  His  religion  of  good  news  still 
stands  the  high  test  and  is  not  found  wanting.  Jesus 
still  saves  from  sin.  In  our  next  chapter  we  shall  under- 
take to  answer  the  difficult  question  Jiozu. 

Therefore  let  us  also,  seeing  we  are  compassed 
about  with  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  lay  aside 
every  weight,  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily 
beset  us,  and  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus  the  author 
109 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

and  perfecter  of  our  faith,  who  for  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  him  endured  the  cross,  despising 
shame,  and  hath  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  throne  of  God. — Heb.  12:  i,  2. 

The  Joy  of  the  New  Life 

A  devoted  young  soldier  of  France  wrote  home  to  his 
friends,  "When  the  war  is  over  and  I  go  home,  I  must 
be  a  changed  being.  I  shall  have  no  right  to  be  as  I 
formerly  was,  or  the  lesson  will  have  all  been  in  vain. 
Through  the  war  mankind  must  be  reborn,  and  is  it  not 
our  duty  to  be  reborn  first  of  all?"  Here  is  keen  insight 
as  well  as  real  consecration.  He  is  quite  right — mankind 
is  being  reborn  through  the  war.  The  cosmic  birth-pains 
shall  not  be  in  vain.  It  will  be  a  better  world,  a  safer 
world,  a  just,  fair  world.  And  again  he  is  right — the 
first  to  be  reborn  will  be  the  soldiers,  the  sensitive,  devoted 
souls  among  them,  and  those  whose  lives  are  purged 
through  suffering  and  forgiveness. 

Doubtless  the  barbarity  of  war  is  hardening,  embitter- 
ing, brutalizing  many;  but  its  soul-testing  discipline,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  bringing  other  souls  to  the  light,  and  these 
are  legion.  The  crash  and  the  strain  of  the  cataclysm 
is  still  on;  but  some  day  it  will  end.  And  when  victory 
comes,  there  will  be  more  than  the  Great  Release  to  cele- 
brate. While  the  world  is  celebrating  its  final  release 
from  the  threat  of  insane  tyranny  and  the  grip  of  the 
mailed  fist,  there  will  be  many  soldierly  hearts  returning 
home  also  with  the  joy  of  inner  conquest,  rejoicing  that 
they  have  been  victors  through  Christ  over  foes  more 
subtle  than  those  armed  with  Prussian  steel.  They  will 
not  rue  the  hardships  or  the  wounds  or  the  heartaches 

110 


FINDING  CHRIST'S  POWER  TO  SAVE 

of  exile,  for  in  the  sacrifice  they  will  have  found  a  Savior 
and  the  way  to  the  new  life. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Christian  movement,  there 
was  a  peculiarly  keen  joy  among  the  comrades  of  the 
Jesus  Way.  It  was  not  merely  due  to  the  closeness  of 
their  common  life,  made  more  intimate  and  precious  by 
sharing  the  common  dangers  of  persecution.  It  was  due 
to  the  strangely  vivid  sense  of  God's  presence,  and  their 
glorious  new  faith  in  the  living  Christ,  and  the  change 
he  had  wrought  in  their  lives.  It  was  due  also  to  the  dis- 
covery that  joy  in  the  superlative  degree  is  to  be  found 
only  in  some  high  consecration  made  in  the  spirit  of 
sacrifice.  There  was  a  holy  zest  in  sharing  their  Mas- 
ter's cross,  and  it  brought  far  more  joy  than  pain. 

In  the  cooler  tides  of  our  modern  faith  emotion  has 
doubtless  been  repressed.  Lest  feeling  should  dethrone 
thought  and  sweep  us  from  our  sober  anchorage  of  ethics, 
we  have  feared  to  let  our  religion  give  vent  to  its  "joy. 
But  the  deepening  experiences  of  hearts  strained  by  war 
sacrifices,  both  at  home  and  at  the  front,  will  surely  gen- 
erate religious  feelings,  worthy  of  the  sacrifice,  and  we 
shall  not  be  ashamed  of  them.  And  mingling  with  the 
new  songs  of  high  patriotism  and  the  joyous  battle  hymns 
of  coming  victory,  we  already  hear  the  grand  old  hymns 
of  the  faith,  with  their  ringing  notes  of  joy  and  peace. 
In  such  a  mood  nothing  is  more  inspiring  to  our  faith 
than  the  triumphant  words  of  Paul: 

What  then  shall  we  say  to  these  things?  If 
God  is  for  us,  who  is  against  us  ?  He  that  spared 
not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us 
all,  how  shall  he  not  also  with  him  freely  give  us 
all  things  ?  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge 
111 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  God's  elect?  It  is  God  that  justifieth;  who  is 
he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  Jesus  that  died, 
yea  rather,  that  was  raised  from  the  dead,  who  is 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  inter- 
cession for  us.  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  Christ?  shall  tribulation,  or  anguish,  or 
persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or 
sword?  .  .  .  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more 
than  conquerors  through  him  that  loved  us.  For 
I  am  persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth, 
nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord.— Rom.  8:  31-35,  37-39. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

Why  is  the  cure  of  sin  the  severest  test  of  any  religion  ? 
How  is  sin  like  a  disease?  Why  does  it  take  more  than 
penance  to  redeem  from  sin?  Where  does  an  evil  habit 
get  its  power? 

In  what  different  ways  is  sin  punished?  Show  how  sin 
is  its  own  worst  penalty.  What  is  remorse?  Whom  can 
even  God  not  forgive  ?  What  makes  forgiveness  possible  ? 
What  then  must  be  the  first  step  toward  forgiveness  and 
redemption  ? 

What  sort  of  habits  are  the  most  difficult  to  break? 
What  physical  results  often  follow  bad  habits  auto- 
matically ?  What  do  you  think  of  the  policy  of  the  Ameri- 
can Army  and  Navy  regarding  the  social  evil? 

How  does  Christ  give  a  man  the  courage  to  try  to  live 
a  clean  life?  If  he  saves  men  under  such  discouraging 
circumstances,  is  there  any  sort  of  man  he  cannot  help? 


112 


CHAPTER  VII 

FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

What  Being  a  Christian  Means  Today 

By  our  stress  upon  the  sin  of  immorality,  in  the  last 
chapter,  we  must  not  be  misunderstood  as  rating  the  sins 
of  the  flesh  as  worse  than  all  others.  Jesus  very  evi- 
dently did  not.  The  sins  of  the  spirit  he  dreaded  more. 
Censoriousness  and  hypocrisy  received  from  him  far 
severer  denunciation.  He  had  great  sympathy  for  human 
weaknesses,  and  large  charity  for  sins  of  impulse;  but 
cold,  calculating,  premeditated  sins  of  an  anti-social  life 
aroused  his  righteous  fury.  Our  complex  social  order  has 
developed  many  kinds  of  sins  against  brotherhood  which 
Jesus'  love  for  fellowmen  would  strongly  condemn.  Our 
worst  modern  sinners  are  often  immaculate  in  their  per- 
sonal life,  quite  free  from  the  grosser  immoralities,  but 
hard  as  steel  in  their  treatment  of  their  brother  men. 
Our  social  conscience  has  been  slow  in  developing,  but  the 
past  decade  has  awakened  it,  and  public  opinion  has  forced 
it  to  apply  new  standards  of  social  right  and  wrong. 
President  Hyde's  modern  definition  of  sin  is  a  suggestive 
one.  He  calls  it  'Jailing  short  of  good  will."  The  Chris- 
tian, then,  is  the  Man  of  Good  Will.  He  is  the  Christ- 
Man,  Jesus  Christ's  man,  with  a  spirit  of  invincible  good 
will  toward  all  men  and  toward  God.  We  think  of  God 
as  the  Infinite  Spirit  of  Efficient  Good  Will.  The  Chris- 
tian is  the  man  in  whom  this  Spirit  dwells. 

113 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
these  are  sons  of  God.  For  ye  received  not  the 
spirit  of  bondage  again  unto  fear ;  but  ye  received 
the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba, 
Father.  The  Spirit  himself  beareth  witness  with 
our  spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God:  and  if 
children,  then  heirs;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs 
with  Christ ;  if  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  him,  that 
we  may  be  also  glorified  with  him. — Rom.  8: 
14-17. 

And  about  that  time  there  arose  no  small  stir 
concerning  the  Way. — Acts  19 :  23. 

Christianity,  then,  is  simply  a  way  of  life,  "the  Jesus 
Way."  This  was  its  first  name,  in  the  first  century.  It 
is  not  a  method  of  worship,  a  form  of  creedal  statement, 
an  intellectual  assent  to  a  covenant,  a  belief  in  any  magical 
effect  of  the  blood  of  Christ  or  of  the  water  of  baptism. 
It  is  simply  living  the  Christly  life.  "God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  himself."  "Christ  in  you  the 
hope  of  glory."  Here  is  our  simple  Gospel  of  the  In- 
carnation. 

Redemption  Afore  Profound  than  Magic 

Howbeit  that  is  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but 
that  which  is  natural ;  then  that  which  is  spiritual. 
— I  Cor.  15:46. 

Somehow  the  personal  power  of  Christ  saves  men  from 
sin.  A  discriminating  writer  with  the  modern  spirit  says, 
"His  personal  influence,  his  redemptive  power,  have  been 
simply  tremendous  in  the  world — and  never  more  so  than 
at  this  very  hour."     His  is  the  great  redemptive  life  of 

114 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

history,  and  his  redemptive  death  on  Calvary  has  chal- 
lenged the  world's  wonder,  love,  and  highest  thought. 
The  deepest  plummets  of  the  philosophers  have  tried  to 
fathom  it.  Many  explanations  of  the  meaning  of  the  Cross 
have  satisfied  multitudes  of  questioners;  but  no  single 
explanation  has  satisfied  all,  or  ever  will.  The  Fact  of 
the  Cross  looms  larger  than  all  theories  about  it.  The 
glory  of  a  sacrificial  human  life  is  a  moral  grandeur  to 
be  felt  rather  than  coldly  analyzed.  Just  what  our  friend's 
self-sacrifice  does  for  us  is  difficult  to  describe;  but  the 
effect  is  very  real.  Likewise  with  our  Savior's  sacrifice. 
There  is  the  great  fact  of  world  redemption  involved  in 
it.  When  the  world  looks  at  Calvary,  its  heart  stops 
beating  for  an  instant,  appalled,  enthralled,  infused  with 
moral  vigor,  inspired  anew  for  righteousness.  A  new 
loyalty  is  somehow  born.  Somehow,  in  such  a  presence, 
sin  shrivels  and  slinks  away,  and  simple  goodness  thrives 
and  grows  courageous. 

It  is  no  idle  curiosity  that  asks,  "Hozv  does  Christ 
save?''  It  is  a  devoutly  earnest  question,  often  asked  but 
seldom  answered.  It  deserves  our  most  thoughtful  study. 
To  be  sure,  Christ's  power  to  save  does  not  depend  on 
our  comprehending  the  method.  But  many  a  thoughtful 
man  has  turned  away  reluctantly,  disappointed  by  super- 
ficial explanations.  Superstition  can  never  satisfy  a 
rational  mind,  especially  a  modern  man  with  scientific 
training. 

To  begin  with,  we  must  be  cautious  of  accepting  magical 
theories,  as  well  as  mere  literal  dependence  upon  the 
words  of  Scripture.  "The  letter  killeth;  the  spirit  giveth 
life."  Any  superstitious  belief,  which  disregards  scientific 
laws  of  cause  and  effect,  only  pushes  the  mystery  one  step 

115 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

further  from  the  light.  It  leaves  us  not  only  the  original 
fact  to  be  explained,  but  also  the  magical  explanation  of 
it.  Jesus  carefully  avoided  the  reputation  of  being  a  mere 
magician.  We  must  be  equally  careful  to  keep  our  reli- 
gious beliefs  free  from  magic.  It  is  no  more  superstitious 
to  believe  that  bread  and  wine  actually  become  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  Christ  than  it  is  to  believe  that  the  actual 
blood  of  Christ  transforms  character  and  saves  souls. 
Some  would  assert  that  the  former  is  pure  magic;  many 
would  say  the  same  of  the  latter. 

It  is  a  barren  literalism  which  stresses  the  blood  of 
Christ  as  the  secret  of  his  saving  power.  The  Bible 
always  uses  the  term  figuratively,  meaning  the  essence  of 
life,  the  symbol  of  sacrifice.  To  hold  to  this  magical 
explanation  satisfies  only  those  who  think  of  redemption 
as  a  mechanical  rather  than  an  ethical  process.  Perhaps 
a  blood  offering  might  satisfy  an  offended  deity — if  that 
is  all  there  is  to  your  idea  of  the  atonement.  But  so 
physical  a  cause  could  not  make  people  good.  Moral 
results  must  have  moral  causes.  It  takes  great  moral 
energy  to  drive  out  sin.  Whence  comes  this  moral 
dynamic?  No  magical  or  purely  physical  theory  really 
can  explain  for  us  the  power  of  Christ  to  transform  human 
character  and  save  men  from  their  sins.  This  is  a  spirit- 
ual process.  We  call  it  a  moral  miracle,  it  is  so  wonderful. 
It  must  have  a  moral  cause.  We  must  look  for  this  cause 
in  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus.  We  must  study  the 
way  his  teachings  and  his  person,  shown  in  both  his  sacri- 
ficial life  and  death,  affect  the  minds  of  men. 

It  Takes  More  than  One  Cross  to  Make  Calvary 
On  Calvary  there -were  three  crosses.     Jesus  did  not 
116 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

suffer  alone.  It  suggests  that  the  sacrifice  involved  in 
our  redemption  must  be  a  mutual  matter.  Superstitious 
theories  of  the  power  of  his  cross  do  not  explain  the 
saving  power  of  Jesus.  To  find  the  secret  of  his  marvel- 
ous power  to  lift  men  out  of  lives  of  sin,  we  must  find  out 
the  train  of  moral  influence  which  Jesus'  sacrificial  life 
and  death  cause  in  the  world  of  men.  We  must  begin  with 
the  cross  of  the  Savior,  or  rather  the  sacrificial  love  it  sym~ 
holizes,  as  the  first  cause  of  redemption.  Men  can  hardly 
be  saved  from  sin  without  this  powerful  moral  motive. 
But  we  sometimes  forget  that  other  causes  combine  with 
this  in  the  great  process  by  which  a  soul  is  saved.  It  is 
evident  that  the  Savior's  sacrifice  alone  is  not  enough. 
The  redeemed  one  must  share  the  Redeemer's  cross,  or 
stay  selfish  and  unsaved,  in  spite  of  Christ's  sacrifice. 

"The  cross  on  Calvary  alone 
Can  never  save  thy  soul. 
The  cross  in  thine  own  heart  and  life, 
'Tis  that  must  make  thee  whole." 

Without  the  cross  of  Jesus,  the  world  would  never  have 
learned  that  redemption  comes  through  sacrificial  love. 
He  taught  the  world  the  method  and  the  process  of  the 
saved  life,  the  redeemed  character.  Too  many  selfish  peo- 
ple have  complacently  sung, 

"Jesus  paid  it  all,  all  to  him  I  owe," 

and  imagine  that  they  have  no  responsibility  about  their 
own  salvation,  but  that  the  cross  of  Jesus  has  somehow 
done  it  all.  This  is  the  most  dangerous  of  all  fallacies. 
The  reason  there  are  so  many  selfish,  half-saved  Chris- 

117 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

tians,  so  many  half-Christian  people,  is  that  we  have  been 
letting  Jesus  do  it  all.  All  true  Christians  bear  their 
own  cross  in  the  spirit  of  the  divine  Christ,  who  taught 
them  the  meaning  of  sacrifice  and  the  joy  of  it.  Dr.  A. 
W.  Palmer,  of  Honolulu,  puts  this  fact  with  beautiful 
clearness : 

"  'But,'  someone  asks,  'how  does  the  spectacle  of  Jesus' 
life  of  self-sacrifice  culminating  on  Calvary  make  us 
good?'  Only  by  touching  our  lives  with  a  divine  purpose 
to  live  in  the  same  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  join  Jesus 
in  his  search  for  and  service  to  God's  lost  children.  The 
world  is  not  to  be  saved  by  Jesus  alone,  not  by  his  three- 
hours'  agony  on  the  cross  merely,  but  by  the  thousands 
of  men  and  women  who  themselves  become  saviors  and 
give  themselves  unselfishly  even  as  did  he. 

This  young  medical  student  is  to  hear  the  call  of  the 
deep-sea  fishermen  and  give  his  life  to  the  people  on  the 
coast  of  Labrador.  This  young  woman  is  to  respond  to 
the  need  of  the  great  city,  and  spend  her  life  in  the 
nineteenth  ward  of  Chicago  as  a  friend  and  helper  of  the 
foreigner  and  the  forgotten.  This  young  Scotch  weaver 
is  to  die  on  his  knees  in  the  little  African  village,  that 
slavery  may  cease  and  brotherhood  be  born.  Thousands 
of  nameless  and  humble  souls  shall,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
cross,  give  themselves  not  to  selfish  ends  but  to  unselfish 
service  in  cottages  and  hospitals  and  workshops.  And 
so  Christ  shall  be  reduplicated  in  a  myriad  of  saviors  and 
the  world  be  reconciled  to  the  God  who  is  a  God  of  love. 
Thus  the  atonement — ^the  'at-one-ment' — is  continually  and 
eternally  in  process."^ 


"The  Drift  Toward  Religion,"  p.  62. 
118 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

Then  said  Jesus  unto  his  disciples,  If  any  man 
would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me. — Matt.  16:24. 

Jesus'  Method  of  Saving  Prodigals  and  Magdalenes 

His  very  name  means  Savior.  All  through  his  life  he 
was  saving  the  lost,  he  was  rescuing  men  and  women 
from  the  wreck  and  ruin  of  their  sinful  lives.  Says  Dr. 
Fosdick,  "Throughout  the  New  Testament  one  never  loses 
the  accent  of  astonished  gratitude,  from  folk  who  were 
once  slaves  and  now  are  free,  who  from  victims  have 
been  turned  to  victors.  When  Wilberforce's  long  cam- 
paign for  the  freeing  of  British  slaves  was  at  its  climax, 
the  population  of  Jamaica  lined  the  shore  for  days  await- 
ing the  ship  that  should  bring  news  of  Parliament's 
decision.  And  when  from  a  boat's  prow  the  messenger 
cried  'Freedom,'  the  island  rang  with  the  thanksgiving 
of  the  liberated.  Such  rejoicing  one  hears  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  disciples  speak  of  the  freedom  where- 
with Christ  has  set  them  free  (Gal.  5:1);  they  say  that 
they  were  dead  and  now  are  made  alive  (Rom.  6:  11-13)  ; 
once  overwhelmed  by  sin,  they  now  cry,  'More  than  con- 
querors' (Rom.  8:37).'"' 

If  we  would  know  how  the  spirit  of  Christ  saves 
men  from  their  sins  today,  we  would  do  well  to  study 
his  method  of  saving  prodigals  and  magdalenes  during 
his  earthly  life  in  Palestine.  This  may  give  us  just  the 
clue  we  need.  Let  us  see  first  how  Jesus  won  from  a 
career  of  extortion  the  man  Levi,  whose  Christian  name 
was  Matthew. 


» "The  Meaning  of  Faith,"  pp.  248,  249. 
119 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

And  after  these  things  he  went  forth,  and  be- 
held a  publican,  named  Levi,  sitting  at  the  place 
of  toll,  and  said  unto  him,  Follow  me.  And  he 
forsook  all,  and  rose  up  and  followed  him.  And 
Levi  made  him  a  great  feast  in  his  house:  and 
there  was  a  great  multitude  of  publicans  and  of 
others  that  were  sitting  at  meat  with  them.  And 
the  Pharisees  and  their  scribes  murmured  against 
his  disciples,  saying,  Why  do  ye  eat  and  drink 
w4th  the  publicans  and  sinners?  And  Jesus  an- 
swering said  unto  them,  They  that  are  in  health 
have  no  need  of  a  physician;  but  they  that  are 
sick.  I  am  not  come  to  call  the  righteous  but  sin- 
ners to  repentance. — Luke  5  :  27-32. 

The  publicans  were  the  most  disreputable  business  men 
of  the  day.  They  did  the  Roman  Government's  dirty  work 
of  squeezing  tribute  out  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  they 
were  expected  to  do  it  on  a  graft  basis.  So  they  got  all 
they  could  out  of  the  people,  paid  what  Rome  demanded, 
and  grew  disgracefully  rich  on  the  balance.  The  Jews, 
of  course,  despised  them.  They  were  social  outcasts. 
The  religious  people  of  the  day  scorned  and  ignored  them, 
much  as  we  treat  saloonkeepers  today.  They  were  sup- 
posed to  be  the  most  hardened  kind  of  sinners. 

See  how  tactfully  Jesus  won  this  publican  Levi.  He 
overlooked  the  fact  that  Levi  was  not  respectable  or  pious. 
He  just  met  him  as  a  man,  in  a  friendly  way.  It  must 
have  surprised  Levi  to  have  such  a  man  as  Jesus  notice 
him.  They  doubtless  knew  each  other  well,  for  they 
lived  in  the  same  town.  Then  when  Jesus  simply  said 
to  Levi,  "Follow  me,"  calling  him  to  be  his  comrade,  his 
disciple,  Levi  realized  like  a  flash  that  Jesus  had  faith 

120 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

in  him.  Jesus'  confidence  that  Levi  was  too  much  of  a 
man  to  waste  in  the  tax-squeezing  business  aroused  Levi's 
faith  in  himself.  He  probably  loathed  the  dirty  work  any- 
way, and  was  glad  to  leave  it.  "With  Jesus'  help,  I  can !'" 
he  must  have  said  to  himself.  So  he  became  the  disciple 
Matthew,  saved  through  Christ  from  his  sins;  and,  long 
after,  he  wrote  our  Gospel  of  Matthew,  doubtless  from 
private  notes  he  had  taken  himself  from  Jesus'  teachings, 
with  the  same  ink-horn  he  used  at  the  publican's  desk. 

And  he  entered  and  was  passing  through 
Jericho.  And  behold,  a  man  called  by  name 
Zacchaeus;  and  he  was  a  chief  publican,  and  he 
was  rich.  And  he  sought  to  see  Jesus  who  he 
was ;  and  could  not  for  the  crowd,  because  he  was 
little  of  stature.  And  he  ran  on  before,  and 
climbed  up  into  a  sycamore  tree  to  see  him :  for 
he  was  to  pass  that  way.  And  when  Jesus  came 
to  the  place,  he  looked  u'p,  and  said  unto  him, 
Zacchaeus,  make  haste,  and  come  down;  for  to- 
day I  must  abide  at  thy  house.  And  he  made 
haste,  and  came  down,  and  received  him  joyfully. 
And  when  they  saw  it,  they  all  murmured,  saying. 
He  is  gone  in  to  lodge  with  a  man  that  is  a 
sinner.  And  Zacchaeus  stood,  and  said  unto  the 
Lord,  Behold,  Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give 
to  the  poor;  and  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted 
aught  of  any  man,  I  restore  fourfold.  And  Jesus 
said  unto  him.  To-day  is  salvation  come  to  this 
house,  forasmuch  as  he  also  is  a  son  of  Abraham. 
For  the  Son  of  man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost. — Luke  19:  i-io. 

We  find  the  same  method  here.    Jesus  befriends  a  sin- 
ful man  who  was  not  considered  respectable.     He  shows 

121 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Zacchaeus  he  has  faith  in  him.  His  confidence  in  the 
man's  better  self  leads  the  man  to  venture  to  lead  a  better 
life  with  God's  help.  Thus  Jesus  puts  moral  energy  into 
the  man's  life,  and,  in  spite  of  the  criticisms  of  pious 
sceptics,  he  saves  the  lost. 

Early  in  the  morning  he  came  again  into  the 
temple,  and  all  the  people  came  unto  him;  and  he 
sat  down,  and  taught  them.  And  the  scribes 
and  the  Pharisees  bring  a  woman  taken  in  adul- 
tery; and  having  set  her  in  the  midst,  they  say 
unto  him.  Teacher,  this  woman  hath  been  taken 
in  adultery,  in  the  very  act.  Now  in  the  law 
Moses  commanded  us  to  stone  such:  what  then 
sayest  thou  of  her?  And  this  they  said,  trying 
him,  that  they  might  have  whereof  to  accuse  him. 
But  Jesus  stooped  down,  and  wuth  his  finger  wrote 
on  the  ground.  But  when  they  continued  asking 
him,  he  lifted  up  himself,  and  said  unto  them,  He 
that  is  without  sin  among  yot^,  let  him  first  cast 
a  stone  at  her.  And  again  he  stooped  down,  and 
with  his  finger  wrote  on  the  ground.  And  they, 
when  they  heard  it,  went  out  one  by  one,  begin- 
ning from  the  eldest,  even  unto  the  last:  and 
Jesus  was  left  alone,  and  the  woman,  where  she 
was,  in  the  midst.  And  Jesus  lifted  up  himself, 
and  said  unto  her,  Woman,  where  are  they?  did 
no  man  condemn  thee?  And  she  said.  No  man, 
Lord.  And  Jesus  said.  Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee:  go  thy  way;  from  henceforth  sin  no  more. 
—John  8:2-11.' 


^  3  Though  this  story  is  not  found  in  the  oldest  manuscripts,  and  is  bracketed 
in  the  American  Revised  Version,  we  use  it  as  a  genuine  incident  in  the  life 
work  of  Jesus.  It  is  so  perfectly  characteristic  of  him,  it  was  in  all  probability 
one  of  the  many  stories  of  his  life  not  preserved  in  the  original  gospels,  but 
put  m  later,  as  too  valuable  to  be  lost,  by  a  copyist  of  perhaps  the  fifth  century. 

122 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

We  see  here  the  fine  texture  of  Jesus'  gentlemanliness. 
He  is  too  courteous  even  to  look  at  this  disgraced  woman 
and  add  to  her  embarrassment.  After  his  piercing  word, 
in  a  remarkably  acute  way,  has  scattered  her  accusers, 
he  gives  her  his  kindest  sympathy.  Somehow  he  instantly 
finds  the  best  womanhood  within  her  and  appeals  to  it 
successfully.  The  discouraged  woman  needs  no  reproof 
from  him;  she  feels  the  lofty  purity  of  his  crystal  charac- 
ter. His  kindness  melts  her  completely,  and  when,  in 
astonishment,  she  hears  him  say,  "Go  thy  way;  from 
henceforth  sin.no  more,"  it  puts  new  moral  energy  into 
her  soul,  and  she  says  to  herself,  "With  God's  help,  I 
can !''  Jesus'  faith  in  her  future  aroused  her  own  faith 
in  herself,  and  she  went  forth  determined  to  live  up  to  his 
high  expectations.  He  had  saved  her  from  death,  and 
worse  than  death ;  she  must  not  fail  him  now ! 

Hoiv  Christ  Challenges  the  Best  in  Men 

For  scarcely  for  a  righteous  man  will  one  die: 
for  peradventure  for  the  good  man  some  one 
would  even  dare  to  die.  But  God  commendeth 
his  own  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were 
yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us. — Rom.  5:7,  8. 

These  three  typical  illustrations  of  Jesus'  saving  work 
reveal  his  method  of  personal  evangelism.  We  see  clearly 
how  he  saved  the  lost  when  he  lived  among  men  in  visible 
form.  Have  we  any  good  reason  for  doubting  that  his 
living  Spirit,  abroad  in  the  unseen  world  about  humanity 
today,  is  using  this  same  method? 

When  a  man  reads  with  a  wide-open  mind  the  story  of 
Jesus,  his  life  and  teachings,  his  sacrificial  and  triumphant 

123 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

death,  or  when  this  matchless  story  is  rightly  put  before 
him,  it  puts  a  strange  new  moral  energy  into  his  life. 
Somehow  it  challenges  the  very  best  manhood  there  is 
in  him  and  gives  him  moral  courage  to  live  his  life.  Feel- 
ing the  warmth  of  Jesus'  friendliness,  the  discerning  sym- 
pathy of  Jesus  with  his  human  troubles  and  temptations, 
and  the  confidence  that  Jesus  has  that  he  can  live  a  better 
life  if  he  will,  it  encourages  him  wonderfully.  In  spite 
of  his  moral  failures,  he  feels  that  the  Christ  of  Calvary 
believes  in  him^  and  thought  him  worth  dying  for.  He 
feels  Christ's  faith  in  him,  and  it  gives  him  suddenly  a 
new  faith  in  himself.  Spiritual  power  flows  into  his  life 
as  he  says  to  himself  with  inner  conviction,  "With  God's 
help,  I  can;  for  Christ  believes  in  me." 

*'God  Almighty  wouldn't  go  back  on  even  a  thief  like 
me,  if  he  tried  to  live  right,"  was  the  sudden  revelation 
which  came  to  a  repentant  burglar  as  he  kneeled  in  Jerry 
McAuley's  mission  and  the  story  of  Christ  found  its  way 
to  his  heart.  A  few  months  later  Dwight  L.  Moody 
found  this  ex-burglar  and  one-time  convict  guarding  the 
vaults  in  the  U.  S.  Treasury  at  Washington,  a  trusted, 
respected,  and  self-respecting  servant  of  his  country.  The 
Christ  power  had  saved  him  from  a  misspent  life  and  a 
hopeless  future.  It  was  the  moral  energy  of  a  new-found 
faith  that  worked  the  miracle.  But  the  faith  that  saved 
was  not  merely  the  man's  faith  in  Christ,  it  was  his  dis- 
covery that  Christ  had  faith  in  him.  Saving  faith  is  a 
mutual  faith  which  completes  the  circuit  of  the  spiritual 
current  of  redeeming  power. 

He  saith  unto  them,  But  who  say  ye  that  I  am  ? 
And  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said,  Thou  art 
124 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  And  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  him,  Blessed  art  thou, 
Simon  Bar-Jonah:  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not 
revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  And  I  also  say  unto  thee,  that  thou  art 
Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church ; 
and  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against 
it.— Matt.  16:15-18. 

How  Human  Faith  and  Trust  Help  to  Save  Us 

Iron  sharpeneth  iron;  so  a  man  sharpeneth  the 
countenance  of  his  friend. — Prov.  27:  17. 

The  marvelous  response  to  this  challenge  of  our  best 
is  seen  even  in  our  human  friendships.  We  shall  under- 
stand better  how  it  works  in  the  case  of  the  great  Savior 
from  sin,  if  we  think  of  its  working  on  the  lower  levels 
of  human  relationships.  Millions  of  boys  can  never  out- 
grow their  mothers'  faith  in  them.  It  is  what  makes  them 
men  and  keeps  them  straight.  The  memory  of  it  chal- 
lenges them  to  live  constantly  at  their  best,  though  they 
may  be  half  a  world  from  home.  The  recollection  of  a 
father's  proud  look  of  confidence  in  his  boy  and  faith  in 
his  future,  and  the  thought  that  that  father's  name  is  the 
name  he  bears,  keep  many  a  boy  from  stooping  to  do  a 
disgraceful  act  that  would  besmirch  the  family  name  and 
cause  his  father  shame. 

No  one  has  put  more  clearly  the  secret  of  this  moral 
energy  which  saves  men  from  sin  than  Donald  Hankey, 
the  soldier-author  of  the  well-known  book,  "A  Student 
in  Arms."  "Let  us  be  frank  about  this.  What  a  doctor 
might  call  the  'appetites'  and  a  padre  the  'lusts'  of  the 

125 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

body,  hold  dominion  over  the  average  man,  v^rhether  civil- 
ian or  soldier,  unless  they  are  counteracted  by  a  stronger 
power.  The  only  men  who  are  pure  are  those  who  are 
absorbed  in  some  pursuit,  or  possessed  by  a  great  love; 
be  it  the  love  of  clean,  wholesome  life,  which  is  religion, 
or  the  love  of  a  noble  man,  which  is  hero-worship,  or  the 
love  of  a  true  woman.  These  are  the  four  powers  which 
are  stronger  than  'the  flesh' — the  zest  of  a  quest,  religion, 
hero-worship,  and  the  love  of  a  good  woman.  If  a  man 
is  not  possessed  by  one  of  these,  he  will  be  immoral." 

Psychologically,  the  primary  explanation  of  the  fact 
Hankey  states  is  the  mastery  of  the  attention.  When  the 
focal  point  of  consciousness  is  occupied  by  a  great  loyalty, 
there  is  no  chance  for  a  petty  or  unworthy  act  to  enslave 
the  will.  But  constancy  will  fail,  attention  will  flag,  and 
temptation  will  at  some  unguarded  moment  pierce  the 
vulnerable  point  in  a  man's  armor,  unless  he  is  mastered 
by  a  mighty  love.  How  is  it  that  an  absent  wife  in  a  far- 
away home  keeps  a  man  straight  in  the  midst  of  tempta- 
tions? It  is  not  merely  her  love  for  him.  That  helps, 
but  it  cannot  keep  him  safe.  It  is  his  responsive  love 
for  her.  When  that  ceases  to  be  vitally  active,  the  man 
is  in  moral  danger.  The  circuit  of  affection  must  be  com- 
plete, or  the  grounded  circuit  means  loss  of  moral,  keep- 
ing power.  Likewise  her  faith  in  him  must  be  a  constant 
challenge  to  his  best.  He  must  know  that  she  trusts  him 
and  expects  the  utmost  of  him  in  a  faithful  and  efficient 
life. 

Even  along  the  lower  levels  of  human  life,  we  see 
striking  evidence  of  the  power  of  faith  to  challenge  the 
best  that  is  in  a  man's  heart.  Dr.  J.  H.  Denison,  in  his 
"Beside  the   Bowery,"   tells   of  the   sudden   effect   of   a 

126 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

woman's  faith  upon  a  drunkard's  clouded  mind,  even  in  a 
moment  of  acute  danger.  He  describes  a  tense  scene  in 
this  drunkard's  home  when  he  demands  money  of  his 
daughters,  in  order  to  go  back  to  the  saloon  to  prolong 
his  debauch.  When  the  money  is  refused  him,  he  staggers 
toward  the  older  girl  with  clenched  fist  and  a  menacing, 
murderous  look.  Quick  as  a  flash  the  girl  is  saved  from 
her  father's  violence  by  the  swift  intervention  of  a  visitor 
who  steps  between  them,  with  a  quiet,  "Good  evening, 
Mr.  Sanderson."  It  is  the  "Lady  of  Good  Cheer,"  a  Mrs. 
Rockwell,  who  is  the  blessing  of  the  whole  neighborhood. 
The  reply  the  little  woman  got  from  the  drunkard,  whose 
designs  she  had  for  the  moment  thwarted,  was  like  the 
roar  of  a  lion  at  bay:  "What're  ye  doin'  here?  Teachin' 
my  girls  to  disobey  their  father?  I'll  teach  you  to  butt 
in."  But  as  he  gave  a  quick  lurch  toward  her,  the  little 
fearless  woman,  unflinching  and  calm,  mastered  him  even 
in  his  maudlin  condition,  as  she  said  quietly,  with  a 
straight,  steady  look,  "Mr.  Sanderson,  I  know  you  are  a 
gentleman,  and  that  you  would  never  do  anything  dis- 
courteous to  a  lady."  "A  gentleman?  Yes,  sure  I'm  a 
gentleman !"  he  said,  as  he  gave  his  shoulders  a  hunch 
and  straightened  up  with  a  new  dignity,  followed  by  a 
maudlin  laugh  which  belied  his  words. 

In  describing  what  followed  another  writer  says,  "The 
girls  looked  on,  amazed  that  he  had  not  struck  down  their 
visitor.  He  could  hardly  account  for  it  himself.  When 
he  rushed  at  anyone  with  his  huge  fist  poised,  he  was 
accustomed  to  see  fear  or  rage  in  his  victim's  eyes,  and 
then  it  was  easy  to  strike.  But  in  these  eyes  there  was 
no  trace  of  fear  or  rage,  nor  yet  that  more  maddening 
expression  of  disgust  or  contempt.    They  were  challenging 

127 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

him  on  a  point  of  honor,  as  if  they  refused  to  accept  him 
at  his  face  value.  They  seemed  to  question  and  probe, 
but  not  to  laugh  at  him.  There  was  almost  a  reverence 
in  them.  He  felt  that  she  had  found  in  him  something 
that  deserved  respect,  and  it  pleased  him.  He  paid  Httle 
attention  to  her  v^ords,  but  the  sympathy  in  her  voice 
arrested  him.  She  was  not  fault-finding,  as  other  women 
were.  Vague  images  out  of  the  past  rose  before  his  bleared 
eyes:  the  image  of  a  white-haired  woman  by  the  fireside, 
whose  hands  were  stretched  out  to  bless  him;  the  vision 
of  a  fair-faced  bride  who  long  ago  had  trusted  him  and 
believed  him  true. 

The  Lady  of  Good  Cheer  talked  on  of  his  home,  and  of 
little  Nellie  and  of  her  disappointment  that  her  birth- 
day had  been  forgotten.  .  .  .  Before  he  could  speak,  she 
was  inquiring  in  a  tone  of  great  sympathy  how  he  had 
come  to  lose  his  position  as  a  pressman,  and  to  meet  with 
such  hard  luck.  There  is  nothing  a  drunken  man  loves 
more  than  to  dilate  upon  his  misfortunes,  and  Sanderson, 
willing  to  be  beguiled,  sank  down  on  the  sofa.  He 
sprawled  with  his  huge  length  over  the  sofa  and  she  began 
to  speak  seriously  and  sympathetically  of  the  life  he 
had  been  leading.  She  told  him  plainly  what  she  thought 
of  his  behavior,  and  he  sat  quietly  and  listened,  although 
he  would  have  knocked  a  man  down  for  saying  half  as 
much.  For  he  felt,  that  although  she  rebuked  him,  it  was 
because  she  had  found  something  in  him  she  respected 
and  trusted,  and  he  recognized  that  she  had  a  right  to 
speak  as  she  did.  It  was  the  same  right  which  he  had 
acknowledged  in  those  who  years  ago  had  believed  in  him 
— the  claim  which  faith  and  love  always  have  over  a 
man's  life.    The  battle  was  won  long  before  help  came, 

128 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

and  the  girls  were  safe  that  night  from  terrors  worse  than 
death.  On  her  way  uptown  the  Lady  of  Good  Cheer 
ended  her  account  of  the  evening  by  saying:  1  don't  care 
what  you  say !  I  Hke  Mr.  Sanderson.  There's  something 
that's  really  worth  while  at  the  bottom  of  that  man's 
life.'  "* 

It  is  very  clear  that  this  fearless  little  woman  succeeded 
in  conquering  the  maudlin  drunkard  because  she  was  a 
Christian  and  used  most  skilfully  the  simple  method  of 
Christ.  She  challenged  the  man's  best,  buried  deep  in  his 
heart  and  his  forgotten  past,  by  her  surprising  faith  in  his 
manhood,  his  latent  instincts  of  a  gentleman.  Her  chal- 
lenge arrested  him,  disarmed  him,  and  won  his  respect. 

The  Moral  Energy  Which  Saves  Men  from  Sin 

Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling;  for  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  you  both 
to  will  and  to  work,  for  his  good  pleasure. — 
Phil.  2 :  12b,  13. 

After  this  discussion  it  should  be  clear  to  us  that  when 
Jesus  saves  a  man,  it  is  by  arousing  that  man's  coopera- 
tion in  the  redemptive  process.  Redemption  is  a  mutual 
matter.  We  are  saved  by  Christ's  sacrifice,  phis  our  own. 
We  are  saved  by  our  faith  in  Christ,  plus  his  faith  in  us. 
We  are  saved  by  Christ's  love,  plus  ours  for  him.  And 
we  are  saved  in  a  mutual  service.  It  is  thus  that  moral 
energy  flows  from  the  divine  Christ  into  human  lives,  by 
way  of  action  and  reaction,  in  an  unbroken  circuit  of 
mutual  interchange  of  moral  motives,  which  brings,  like 
the  physical  process  of  transfusion  of  blood,  the  strength 

*  W.  D.  Hyde.  "The  Gospel  of  Good  Will,*:  p.  25. 
129 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  Christ  into  the  life  that  is  aroused  to  its  utmost  spirit- 
ual capacity  through  loyalty  to  him. 

The  saving  power  of  Christ's  sacrifice  is  revealed  in 
the  response  it  gets  in  a  human  life.  It  is  powerless  to 
save  unless  that  life  also  learns  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice, 
takes  up  its  cross,  and  follows  the  Christ.  We  say  we 
are  saved  by  our  faith  in  Christ,  and  surely  we  cannot 
trust  his  saviorhood  until  we  have  faith  in  his  power. 
But  our  faith  in  him  is  born  of  his  faith  in  us.  We  trust 
him  because  we  discover  that  he  first  trusted  us,  and 
found  the  best  that  was  in  us,  and  thought  that  we  and 
men  like  us  were  worth  dying  for.  Likewise  we  love  him 
"because  he  first  loved  us."  Yet  his  love  alone  cannot 
save  us.  It  is  only  when  it  makes  us  love  him  in  return 
that  it  has  vital  saving  power.  The  electric  circuit  of 
dynamic  influence  must  be  completed  first,  before  the 
moral  energy  can  flow  through  it  from  his  life  into  ours. 
Our  love  for  Jesus,  the  response  to  his  wonderful,  undy- 
ing love  for  us — even  when  we  are  wandering  prodigals 
and  wholly  unworthy  of  him — grows  into  a  deep,  strong 
loyalty  to  him,  to  his  matchless,  radiant  character,  his 
perfect  principles  of  life,  and  to  himself,  our  dearest, 
truest  friend.  It  is  this  strong  loyalty  which  binds  us  to 
Christ  with  living  bonds  and  makes  it  possible  for  his 
"keeping  power"  to  keep  us  out  of  sin. 

But  what  keeps  a  man  loyal  to  his  Master  is  the  mutual 
service  which  is  prompted  by  this  mutual  love.  Many  a 
Christian  loses  his  grip  on  Christ,  and  falls  back  under 
the  lure  of  temptation,  chiefly  because  he  does  nothing 
in  comradeship  with  Christ  to  make  the  world  better. 
We  Christians  must  be  saviors,  too.  The  more  we  share 
our   Master's  cross,   the   more   we   serve   with   him  our 

130 


FINDING  HOW  CHRIST  SAVES 

brother  men,  the  more  we  feel  our  partnership  with  his 
great  enterprise  of  making  this  a  better  world,  the  steadier 
will  be  our  loyalty  to  him,  and  the  greater  our  joy  in  his 
saving  friendship.  Then  sin,  the  great  enemy,  the  great 
disease  of  the  human  spirit,  will  have  no  terrors  for  us. 
Then  are  we  truly  Men  of  Good  Will,  the  comrades  of  the 
Christ-Man.    To  us  and  our  comrades  he  will  say: 

Fear  not;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last,  and  the 
Living  one;  and  I  was  dead,  and  behold,  I  am 
alive  for  evermore,  and  I  have  the  keys  of  death 
and  of  Hades. — Rev.  i :  17b,  18. 

To  him  that  overcometh,  to  him  will  I  give  of 
the  hidden  manna,  and  I  will  give  him  a  white 
stone,  and  upon  the  stone  a  new  name  written, 
which  no  one  knoweth  but  he  that  receiveth  it. 
— Rev.  2  :  17b. 

I  come  quickly :  hold  fast  that  which  thou  hast, 
that  no  one  take  thy  crown.  He  that  overcometh, 
I  will  make  him  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  my  God, 
and  he  shall  go  out  thence  no  more:  and  I  will 
write  upon  him  the  name  of  my  God,  and  the 
name  of  the  city  of  my  God,  the  new  Jerusalem, 
which  Cometh  down  out  of  heaven  from  my  God,- 
and  mine  own  new  name. — Rev.  3:11,  12. 

And  there  shall  be  no  curse  any  more :  and  the 
throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  therein : 
and  his  servants  shall  serve  him;  and  they  shall 
see  his  face ;  and  his  name  shall  be  on  their  fore- 
heads.— Rev.  22 :  3,  4. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

What  do  you  think  it  means  to  be  a  Christian  ?   What  is 
meant  by  calling  the  Christian  "the  Man  of  Good  Will"  ? 

131 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

What  do  you  think  of  Jesus'  redemptive  life  and  death  ? 
How  does  the  thought  of  Jesus'  cross  affect  you?  In 
what  direction  must  we  look  to  find  the  moral  energy  in 
"the  saving  power  of  Christ"? 

What  does  the  sacrificial  love  symbolized  by  the  cross 
mean  to  you?  Why  did  Jesus  tell  his  disciples  they  too 
must  take  up  their  cross?  How  does  Jesus'  cross  stimu- 
late our  self-sacrifice? 

How  did  Jesus  induce  Matthew  the  publican  to  give  up 
his  sinful  business?  What  do  you  learn  about  Jesus' 
method  of  saving  sinners  from  the  story  of  the  sinful 
woman  in  John  8?  In  all  such  cases,  to  what  did  Jesus 
make  his  appeal?  How  did  he  give  them  new  moral 
energy  to  live  a  new  life? 

Explain  the  strategy  of  Christ's  always  challenging  the 
best  in  a  man.  How  does  this  brace  a  man  to  do  his 
utmost  ? 

What  effect  does  a  mother's  faith  in  her  boy  have  upon 
him?  What  four  forces  in  a  man's  life  does  Hankey  say 
are  the  only  things  that  can  keep  a  man  straight?  Show 
how  devotion  to  a  great  cause  helps  a  man  morally. 

Are  we  saved  by  our  faith  in  Christ,  or  his  faith  in  us, 
or  both?  How  does  sharing  his  cross  bring  moral  energy 
into  our  lives?  If  we  help  save  another,  how  does  it 
help  us?    Is  a  man  still  selfish  really  saved? 


132 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DISCOVERING  GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S 
BIBLE 

The  Bible  a  Book  of  Life 

The  Bible  seems  to  be  a  deathless  book.  The  average 
book  does  not  survive  the  third  anniversary  of  its  print- 
ing. The  Bible  is  likely  to  live  forever.  The  average 
book  sells  less  than  i,ooo  copies.  The  Bible,  year  after 
year,  always  leads  the  "best  sellers,"  and  in  the  year 
19 12  there  were  28,000,000  copies  of  it  printed,  in  about 
500  languages  and  dialects.  It  is  the  only  book  printed 
in  every  known  language  which  human  beings  speak. 
As  the  anvil  wears  out  many  hammers,  the  Bible  has 
survived  many  persecutions.  It  was  never  more  read  and 
studied  than  today.  Millions  make  it  their  daily  guide. 
There  must  be  a  reason  for  all  this.  It  is  because  there  is 
life  in  the  hook,  and  men  iind  God  in  the  hook.  This 
makes  it  the  most  inspiring,  the  most  instructive,  the  most 
comforting  book  in  the  world.  Accurately  speaking,  the 
Bible  is  a  library  rather  than  a  book.  Its  sixty-six  books 
were  originally  separate  rolls  of  sheepskin  or  papyrus 
manuscript,  written  by  very  many  known  and  unknown 
writers,  during  a  period  of  over  a  thousand  years.  It 
represents  the  cream  of  the  literature  of  the  Hebrew 
race. 

"The  Bible  is  the  word  of  life,"  says  President  Wood- 
133 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

row  Wilson,  "I  beg  that  you  will  read  it  and  find  this 
©ut  for  yourselves — read,  not  little  snatches  here  and 
there,  but  long  passages  that  will  really  be  the  road  to 
the  heart  of  it.  You  will  find  it  full  of  real  men  and 
women  not  only,  but  also  of  the  things  you  have  wondered 
about  and  been  troubled  about  all  your  life,  as  men  have 
been  always;  and  the  more  you  read  the  more  it  will  be- 
come plain  to  you  what  things  are  worth  while  and  what 
are  not,  what  things  make  men  happy — loyalty,  right  deal- 
ing, speaking  the  truth,  readiness  to  give  everything  for 
what  they  think  their  duty,  and,  most  of  all,  the  wish  that 
they  may  have  the  real  approval  of  the  Christ,  who  gave 
everything  for  them;  and  the  things  that  are  guaranteed 
to  make  men  unhappy — selfishness,  cowardice,  greed,  and 
everything  that  is  low  and  mean.  When  you  have  read 
the  Bible  you  know  that  it  is  the  Word  of  God,  because 
you  have  found  it  the  key  to  your  own  heart,  your  own 
happiness,  and  your  own  duty.  ...  I  am  sorry  for  the 
men  who  do  not  read  the  Bible  every  day."^ 

No  man  can  do  justice  to  the  Bible's  influence  in  the 
world,  and  its  service  of  humanity.  It  has  been  praised 
by  a  multitude  of  writers,  but  none  is  eloquent  enough 
to  do  the  subject  justice.  Even  Theodore  Parker,  who 
used  to  be  called  "the  arch-heretic  of  New  England,"  paid 
it  this  tribute:  "This  collection  of  books  has  taken  such 
a  hold  on  the  world  as  no  other.  The  literature  of  Greece, 
which  goes  up  like  incense  from  that  land  of  temples  and 
heroic  deeds,  has  not  half  the  influence  of  this  book.  It 
is  read  of  a  Sabbath  in  all  the  ten  thousand  pulpits  of  our 
land.     In  all  the  temples  of  religion  is  its  voice  lifted  up 


I  "Some  Words  of  President  Wilson  About  Religion/I  p.  6. 
134 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

week  by  week.  The  sun  never  sets  on  its  gleaming  page. 
It  goes  equally  to  the  cottage  of  the  plain  man  and  the 
palace  of  the  king.  It  is  woven  into  the  literature  of 
the  scholar  and  colors  the  talk  of  the  street.  ...  It  blesses 
us  when  we  are  born,  gives  names  to  half  Christendom; 
rejoices  with  us,  has  sympathy  for  our  mourning;  tempers 
our  grief  to  finer  issues.  It  is  the  better  part  of  our 
sermons.  It  lifts  man  above  himself;  our  best  of  uttered 
prayers  are  in  its  storied  speech,  wherewith  our  fathers 
and  the  patriarchs  prayed.  The  timid  man  about  awak- 
ing from  this  dream  of  life,  looks  through  the  glass  of 
Scripture  and  his  eye  grows  bright;  he  does  not  fear  to 
stand  alone,  to  tread  the  way  unknown  and  distant,  to 
take  the  death  angel  by  the  hand  and  bid  farewell  to  wife 
and  babes  and  home.  Men  rest  on  this  their  dearest  hope ; 
it  tells  them  of  God  and  of  his  blessed  Son,  of  earthly 
duties  and  of  heavenly  rest."^ 

Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet, 

And  light  unto  my  path.  ... 

The  opening  of  thy  words  giveth  light. 

— Psalm  119:105,  130. 

Not  a  Magical  Holy  Book,  hut  a  Part  of  Human 
History 

The  Christian's  Bible  is  not  like  other  holy  books.  It 
did  not  drop  from  the  skies,  a  full-grown  mystery.  It  was 
not  magical  in  its  origin,  as  is  claimed  of  such  holy  books 
as  the  Koran  and  the  Book  of  Alormon,  and  the  sacred 
writings   of  the   Oriental   faiths.     THe  great  founder  of 

2  "Discourse  on  Religion." 

135 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Islam,  when  he  first  pubHshed  the  Koran,  claimed  that 
every  paragraph  and  syllable  in  it  was  a  divine  revelation, 
dictated  to  him  orally.  It  is  a  dull,  stupid  book,  with 
contradictions  here  and  there;  but  nevertheless  Mo- 
hammed claimed  that  Allah  was  its  sole  author,  and  he 
himself  only  the  amanuensis. 

That  strange  literary  mixture,  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the 
holy  book  of  the  Church  of  Latter  Day  Saints — or  the 
Mormons,  as  the  world  calls  them — also  claims  a  miracu- 
lous origin.  It  was  given  to  the  world  by  Joseph  Smith, 
the  first  Mormon,  Smith  claimed  he  translated  it  with 
the  help  of  God  from  mysterious  writings  engraved  on 
certain  gold  plates  which  he  had  dug  up  on  his  farm  in 
New  York  State.  They  who  were  willing  to  accept  his 
strange  story  believed  there  had  been  a  great  miracle 
wrought,  and  revered  his  holy  book;  but  the  sceptical 
wondered  why  no  one  else  had  ever  seen  those  gold 
plates,  and  why  Smith  buried  them  again  as  soon  as  he 
had  copied  their  message,  also  why  he  did  all  his  work 
of  sacred  translation  behind  a  screen,  where  even  his  best 
friends  could  not  witness  the  process ! 

The  Christian's  Bible  differs  from  all  other  holy  books 
in  this  respect.  It  claims  no  miraculous  origin.  It  tells 
us  no  miracle-story  of  its  own  production.  It  yields  to 
the  most  searching  investigation  of  its  history.  It  submits 
to  the  keenest  questioning  of  its  contents.  And  it  has 
survived  all  its  criticism,  just  as  much  loved  and  appreci- 
ated, and  far  better  understood  than  ever.  We  love  the 
Bible  all  the  more  when  we  discover  that  it  was  a  natural 
product  of  history,  a  part  of  the  great  evolution  of  human 
life.  Though  we  find  God  in  it,  and  though  some  of  its 
messages  are  the  sublimest  and  most  inspiring  in  all  liter- 

136 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

ature,  we  can  truly  say  it  is  a  human  product.  It  is  not 
a  sanctimonious  fraud  like  the  Book  of  Mormon,  making 
unnatural  claims  about  its  own  origin,  but  a  genuine 
human  document,  or  series  of  documents,  direct  from  life. 
The  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  lived  a  human  life  in  Pales- 
tine made  it  possible  for  him  to  interpret  God  to  men  and 
to  sympathize  keenly  and  genuinely  with  human  needs. 
Likewise  the  fact  that  the  Bible  is  a  vital  part  of  human 
life  and  history  greatly  enhances  its  usefulness.  We  can 
approximately  date  most  of  its  writings.  We  can  identify 
most  of  its  authors.  We  can  usually  learn  their  motives 
and  purposes  in  writing.  We  can  discern  in  their  writ- 
ings the  living  background  of  their  message  and  the 
throbbing  human  struggle  which  gave  it  birth.  We  feel 
these  heroic  men  of  the  far  past  to  be  kindred  spirits  with 
ourselves,  and  in  their  noble  life  efforts  we  discover  in- 
spiration for  our  own  life  work.  We  should  be  deeply 
thankful  for  our  Bible,  with  its  myriad  human  contacts. 

Then  answered  Amos,  and  said  to  Amaziah,  I 
was  no  prophet,  neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son; 
but  I  was  a  herdsman,  and  a  dresser  of  sycomore- 
trees:  and  Jehovah  took  me  from  following  the 
flock,  and  Jehovah  said  unto  me.  Go,  prophesy 
unto  my  people  Israel.  Now  therefore  hear  thou 
the  word  of  Jehovah. — Amos  7:  i4-i6a. 

"The  teachers  of  Israel  were  real,  living  men,  steeped 
in  the  life  of  their  times;  their  thoughts  and  ideas  and 
sentiments  were  in  vital  relation  to  those  of  their  time, 
even  when  ahead  of  them  and  differing  from  them.  In- 
spired many  of  them  undoubtedly  were,  but  superhummp 
they  were  not.     Now  when  the  Bible  is  thus  discovered 

137 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

to  be  a  vital  part  of  human  life,  it  becomes  a  living  book. 
It  ceases  to  be  mechanical,  it  is  not  a  supernatural  machine 
produced  in  some  laboratory  in  the  sky.  It  is  a  natural 
flower  grown  on  earth,  but  only  possible  because  the  Sun 
was  shining  in  the  sky.  If  upon  that  nation  of  old  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  had  not  arisen,  and  if  the  human 
spirit  had  not  drunk  the  divine  influences,  then  this  Bible 
garden  could  not  have  been."^ 

Is  it  not  clear,  then,  that  a  holy  book  of  the  "super- 
natural" type  would  be  a  dead  book,  but  that  a  human 
Bible  is  a  living  book?  The  former  is  a  mere  pious 
machine,  the  latter  is  a  book  of  life. 

Useless  Claims  Which  Our  Bible  Never  Makes 

Many  thoughtful  people  have  been  so  perplexed  about 
the  Bible  that  they  have  been  unable  conscientiously  to 
retain  their  early  views  regarding  it,  and,  failing  to  get 
the  constructive  modern  viewpoint,  have  lost,  through 
neglect,  its  great  strength  and  comfort  for  their  lives. 
Their  study  of  modern  science  compels  them  to  reject  the 
scientific  allusions  in  the  Bible.  Their  Christian  con- 
science compels  them  to  object  to  the  ethics  of  the  early 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  such  as  its  condoning 
polygamy,  wholesale  slaughter,  human  sacrifice,  and  other 
forms  of  tribal  ethics.  Their  common  sense  compels  them 
to  abandon  any  theory  of  "verbal  inspiration"  as  me- 
chanical and  impossible,  and  with  this,  the  infallibility 
of  the  words  of  Scripture.  Their  sense  of  proportion 
rebels  against  such  indiscriminate  use  of  verses  of  the 


3  T.  Rhondda  WiUiams.  "Shall  We  Understand  the  Bible?" 
138 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

Bible,  as  concedes  equal  authority  to  all  parts  of  the  Bible, 
regardless  of  authorship.  So  they  politely,  and  usually 
silently,  neglect  the  Bible  as  an  old-fashioned,  outworn 
book. 

It  should  be  said  frankly  at  once  that  these  people  are 
needlessly  perplexed.  They  are  simply  confused  by  what 
people  have  said  about  the  Bible,  not  what  the  Bible 
claims  for  itself.  The  Bible  makes  no  claim  to  have  been 
verbally  inspired.  It  gives  us  no  mechanical  theory  of 
its  own  origin,  which  would  class  it  with  other  holy 
books  like  the  Koran  and  Book  of  Mormon.  The  Bible 
makes  no  claim  to  be  a  book  of  science.  It  is  no  more 
of  an  authority  on  geology  and  astronomy  than  it  is  on 
modern  medicine,  and  it  makes  no  claim  to  be.  It  is  a 
book  of  religion.  Its  specialty  is  righteousness  and  the 
will  of  God,  and  all  its  great  messages  are  on  this  great- 
est of  all  subjects.  It  would  be  unnatural  to  expect  any 
greater  scientific  wisdom  from  the  Bible  writers  than  was 
common  to  the  best  thinkers  of  their  own  age.  No  one 
in  those  days  dreamed  of  the  Copernican  theory  of 
astronomy  nor  of  the  modern  discovery  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  it  would  have  been  highly  unnecessary 
as  well  as  unnatural  for  a  book  of  religion  to  have  known 
about  either,  centuries  before  their  discovery.  * 

Xor  is  there  any  claim  in  the  Bible  writings  that  all 
parts  of  this  very  diverse  literature  are  of  equal  value, 
so  as  to  warrant  indiscriminate  quotation,  Jesus  himself 
puts  his  teachings  above  certain  Old  Testament  laws. 
Foolish,  indiscriminate  quotation  has  caused  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  and  has  made  the  Bible  a  dangerous  book,  at 
certain  times  in  history.  It  is  well  known  how  our  south- 
ern   slaveholders   quoted   the   Old   Testament   to   justify 

139 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

slavery  "as  a  divine  institution."  The  Mormons  defend 
polygamy  from  the  same  source.  The  burning  of  100,000 
witches  in  Germany  in  a  single  century  v^^as  due  to  an 
Old  Testament  law  which  required  that  no  sorceress 
should  be  suffered  to  live.  A  certain  law  in  Leviticus 
condemns  to  death  any  one  who  does  not  worship  Jehovah. 
This  was  held  to  justify  the  Spanish  inquisition  and  the 
horrors  of  the  Reformation  persecutions.  Many  petty 
sects  have  been  founded  on  the  literal  interpretatioYi  of 
some  isolated  passage  of  Scripture,  regardless  of  con- 
text, authorship,  and  the  broader  teachings  of  Jesus.  All 
oi  this  is  a  grossly  unfair  abuse  of  the  Bible. 

As  soon  as  we  recognize  that  the  Bible  grew,  that  it 
was  a  book  of  life,  a  part  of  human  history,  these  diffi- 
culties are  quickly  resolved.  We  then  see  the  various 
parts  of  the  whole  in  their  true  perspective  and  propor- 
tion. We  no  longer  expect  more  of  the  older  portions 
than  the  facts  justify.  We  are  not  surprised  to  find  that 
in  the  crude  days  of  patriarchal  and  tribal  history,  many 
centuries  before  the  light  of  Christ,  even  the  best  of  men 
lived  rough,  crude  lives,  with  low  moral  standards,  and 
with  cruel  and  often  brutal  instincts.  We  should  not  be 
surprised  at  this,  for  those  were  the  days  of  barbarism. 
If  these  earlier  writings  of  the  Bible  had  not  been  a  true 
reflection  of  the  moral  and  social  conditions  of  their  own 
times,  we  should  doubt  if  they  were  genuine.  It  is  the 
best  proof  of  their  genuineness,  that  they  do  not  gloss 
over  the  rough,  immoral  character  of  their  early  heroes, 
but  paint  them  as  they  were,  rough  men  in  rude  barbarous 
times,  centuries  before  our  Christian  civilization.  The 
Christian  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament,  however, 
present  to  us  the  highest  moral  standard  the  world  has 

140 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

ever  known,  and  Jesus  frankly  asserts  that  this  standard 
is  to  take  the  place  of  the  lower  and  more  primitive 
standard  of  a  thousand  years  before. 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old 
time.  .  .  .  But  I  say  unto  you  .  .  .  (Matt.  5:21, 
27.  31.  33.  38,  43-)  Compare  with  Deut.  5:  17; 
Exodus  20:  13;  Deut.  24:  i,  3;  Lev.  19: 12;  Xum. 
30:2;  Exodus  21:24;  Lev.  24:20;  19:18 — Old 
Testament  laws  which  Jesus  declares  obsolete 
and  needing  improvement. 

Let  us  make  no  claim  for  the  Bible  which  it  does  not  make 
for  itself,  and  we  shall  save  ourselves  many  perplexities. 

The  Rich  Variety  in  the  Bible's  Messages 

Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold 
Wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law. 

— Psalm  119: 18. 

When  once  we  discover  that  this  great  book  of  life  is 
not  all  on  the  dead  level,  we  find  more  and  more  variety 
in  the  writings  of  the  Bible.  We  discover  there  all  the 
literary  forms  from  statute  law  to  lyric  poetry.  The 
gospels  woven  together  make  the  most  wonderful  biogra- 
phy in  all  literature.  The  book  of  the  Acts  and  the  books 
of  Samuel  and  Kings  are  ancient  history.  In  the  pre- 
historic writings  of  Genesis  we  find  traditional  folk-lore, 
hero  tales  like  the  stories  of  King  Arthur,  like  the  glory 
tales  of  Germany  and  Spain.  The  book  of  Psalms  is 
the  hymn  book  of  the  Jewish  Temple.  The  Proverbs  is 
a  collection  of  the  practical  sayings  of  the  wise  men  which 

141 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

were  household  proverbs,  current  among  the  Jews  long 
before  they  were  ever  written.  Leviticus  and  Deuteron- 
omy give  us  the  Hebrew  statute  law  upon  all  subjects. 
Here  and  there  we  find  great  allegories,  like  Jonah  and 
the  Prodigal  Son;  and  Esther  and  Daniel  aVe  historical 
romances  based  on  great  characters  in  the  past,  with  a 
great  motive  power  to  encourage  the  Jews  in  the  Macca- 
bean  period.  One  of  the  greatest  of  dramas  is  the  book 
of  Job  with  its  message  on  the  deep  problem  of  human 
suffering.  The  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  lyric  love  song. 
The  Revelation  is  a  wondrous  vision  of  a  spiritual  seer. 
Ecclesiastes  is  a  pessimistic  reverie  reminding  us  of  the 
Rubaiyat  of  Omar,  and  written,  as  has  been  suggested, 
"not  by  a  great  saint,  but  by  a  great  sinner."  Paul's 
writings  are  precious  personal  letters  to  his  friends,  and 
the  books  of  the  prophets  are  collections  of  sermons  and 
patriotic  orations  which  have  continued  to  stir  the  reli- 
gious feelings  and  the  conscience  of  the  world  for  many 
centuries. 

All  varieties  of  literary  forms  are  there,  and  we  Anglo- 
Saxons,  practical-minded  and  prosaic,  failing  to  catch  the 
poetic  temperament  of  these  Oriental  writers,  poets  and 
seers,  have  tried  to  interpret  them  all  alike,  by  the  rigid 
rule  of  literal,  legal  matter-of-factness,  all  on  the  dead 
level !  No  wonder  our  blunder  has  brought  us  confusion 
and  perplexity. 

Dr.  A.  W.  Palmer  very  suggestively  describes  this 
variety  in  the  biblical  material:  "The  Bible  is  not  a  book. 
It  comes  nearer  to  being  a  library.  If  you  were  to  take 
Green's  'History  of  England,'  'Pilgrim's  Progress,'  The 
Idylls  of  the  King,'  a  hymn-book,  the  Constitution  and 
the  common  law,  Phillips  Brooks'  sermons,  'Poor  Richard's 

142 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

Almanac,'  the  letters  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  'Richard 
Carvel,'  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Bacon's  essays, 
'Paradise  Lost,'  and  Shakespeare's  plays,  and  bind  them 
'all  in  one  volume,  you  would  have  in  English  literature 
something  that  would  be  comparable  in  scope  and  variety 
to  the  Bible.  Only  you  would  have  to  print  these  books 
solidly — without  sentence,  paragraph,  or  chapter  divisions. 
You  would  have  to  print  the  poetry  as  prose  and  the  plays 
without  any  indications  of  scenes  or  speakers.  Then  have 
this  solid  mass  chopped  up  into  chapters  and  verses. 
Then  bind  the  book  in  limp,  black  leather,  put  it  on  the 
center  table  where  it  can  be  easily  dusted,  and  educate 
the  people  to  believe  that  it  is  all  Bible,  all  prose,  all  to 
be  taken  literally,  all  of  equal  authority  as  the  infallible 
word  of  God,  and  you  have  for  English  literature  some- 
thing equivalent  in  form,  matter,  and  meaning  to  what 
our  Bibles  are  in  relation  to  the  literature  of  the  He- 
brews."* 

The  Wonderful  Romance  of  the  Bible  s  Life 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  most  ancient  literature  is 
lost  forever.  In  all  languages  we  read  about  more  lost 
books  than  time  has  preserved  for  us.  The  Greek  and 
Latin  classics  now  extant  are  but  a  small  remnant  of  the 
great  literature  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  Most  of 
the  books  of  the  wise  Egyptians,  the  leaders  of  early 
civilization,  were  long  since  burned,  buried,  or  otherwise 
destroyed.  For  a  book,  a  living  echo  of  a  human  voice 
long  still,  to  be  preserved  through  twenty  centuries,  is 
a  miracle  of  affectionate  care  and  undying  appreciation. 


"The  Drift  Toward  Religion,"  p.  34. 
143 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

When  we  read,  in  the  book  which  reports  the  great  mes- 
sages of  the  prophet  Amos, 

Let  justice  roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteous- 
ness as  a  mighty  stream. — Amos  5  :  24, 

we  have  a  message  that  has  come  to  us  unscathed 
through  twenty-eight  centuries,  nearly  three  millenniums, 
and  we  are  forced  to  ask  the  question.  In  the  midst  of 
the  wreck  of  ancient  libraries,  and  the  loss  of  ancient 
literatures,  why  have  these  Hebrew  treasures  been  pre- 
served? The  answer  is  simple.  They  have  lived  because 
they  deserved  to  live.  Otherwise  they  would  have  died 
of  neglect.  But,  in  the  providence  of  God,  human  hearts 
loved  them,  treasured  them,  and  preserved  them,  that 
future  generations  might  possess  them. 

We  seldom  stop  to  think  that  the  art  of  printing  is  a 
modern  invention.  The  printing  press  rescued  the  Bible 
from  its  precarious  life  in  manuscript;  but  that  was  less 
than  five  centuries  ago.  Through  eighty-five  per  cent  of 
its  long  history,  the  Bible  was  treasured  in  the  form  of 
hand  writing,  laboriously  copied  letter  by  letter  by  the 
hand  of  loving  scribes.  The  first  book  printed  was  the 
Latin  Bible.  Twenty  years  before  that  time,  it  was  tak- 
ing Wycliffe's  scribes  ten  months  to  make  by  hand,  with 
paper  and  ink  and  goose-quill  pens,  one  complete  copy  of 
the  Bible  in  English.  The  great  Bible  publishers  now 
print  beautiful  editions  of  the  Bible  at  the  rate  of  two 
or  three  copies  every  minute.  The  early  English  printers 
and  translators,  William  Tyndale,  Myles  Coverdale,  and 
John  Rogers,  did  the  English  race  a  great  service  in 
furnishing  that  nation  several  editions  of  the  Bible  from 

144 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

1 525- 1 537,  in  their  own  mother-tongue,  thus  bringing  it 
within  reach  of  rich  and  poor  aUke,  though  Tyndale  and 
Rogers  were  soon  burned  at  the  stake  as  martyrs  to  the 
Protestant  cause. 

Some  three  thousand  manuscripts  of  the  Bible,  in  the 
original  Hebrew  and  Greek,  may  still  be  found,  mostly 
in  the  great  libraries  of  Europe.  They  are  precious  relics 
of  the  centuries  before  the  age  of  printing,  when  the 
Bible  lived  only  in  handwritten  form.  These  are  the 
most  valuable  books  in  all  the  world,  especially  the  oldest 
of  them,  the  three  that  date  back  probably  to  the  fourth 
century.  These  three  priceless  manuscripts  are,  strangely 
enough,  shared  by  the  three  branches  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Alexandrian  manuscript  may  be  found  in 
the  British  Museum  in  London.  The  Vatican  manu- 
script is  in  the  Pope's  library  at  Rome.  And  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript,  so  called  because  it  was  discovered  (in  1844) 
in  an  ancient  monastery  on  Mt.  Sinai,  is  in  the  royal  library 
at  Petrograd,  the  greatest  treasure  of  the  Eastern  Church. 
The  writer  has  seen  one  page  of  the  precious  "Codex 
Vaticanus."  So  carefully  is  it  guarded,  its  binding  has 
been  broken,  and  visiting  scholars  at  the  Vatican  are 
allowed  to  study  but  one  page  at  a  time,  lest  the  precious 
book  be  stolen.  Even  then,  it  must  be  examined  under 
glass,  and  no  ink  is  allowed  to  come  near  it.  Photographic 
reproductions  of  these  three  great  manuscripts  of  the 
Bible  may  be  found  in  the  leading  libraries  of  the  world, 
where  scholars  may  study  them,  every  page  having  been 
photographed,  page  by  page,  and  then  printed  from  electro- 
plates. 

The  reason  we  have  no  copies  of  the  Bible  earlier  than 
the   fourth   century   is   that   before   that  time   the   early 

145 


'     FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Christian  writings  were  doubtless  usually  upon  papyrus, 
a  fragile  sort  of  paper  made  from  reeds  and  rushes, 
which  did  not  long  survive.  A  few  fragments,  however, 
of  these  papyrus  books,  containing  some  of  the  teachings 
of  Jesus,  have  been  discovered  in  the  Nile  valley,  long 
preserved  in  the  dry  sands  of  Egypt,  These  fragments, 
now  in  libraries  in  Oxford  and  London,  carry  us  back 
very  close  to  the  time  of  Christ.  They  suggest  the  form 
of  the  earlies.t  gospels,  just  sayings  of  Jesus,  without  story 
connections,  which  were  used  by  the  apostles  in  their 
missionary  travels  to  enable  them  to  quote  the  exact  teach- 
ings of  the  great  Master. 

How  the  Bible  Grew 

As  we  said  above,  the  Bible  grew.  It  was  produced  in 
a  very  natural  way.  The  Old  Testament,  the  Bible  of  the 
Hebrew  Church,  is  the  sifted  result  of  centuries  of  reli- 
gious writing  and  speaking.  The  oldest  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment books  in  their  present  form  is  probably  the  book  of 
the  prophet  Amos.  In  his  day  the  shrines  at  Bethel  and 
Jerusalem  must  have  had  copies  of  the  "Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant" and  the  other  simple  codes  of  primitive  laws  which 
form  the  core  of  our  present  books  of  Hebrew  legislation. 
Ancient  chronicles  were  also  in  existence  which  became 
the  basis  of  the  books  of  biblical  history ;  and  ancient  folk- 
lore in  the  form  of  proverbs,  psalms,  and  fragments  of 
epic  and  lyric  poetry,  which  later  were  woven  into  the 
fabric  of  the  Old  Testament  writings  as  we  now  have 
them.  Countless  stories  of  the  patriarchal,  tribal  past 
were  orally  transmitted  through  the  years.  The  beating 
heart  of  the  Old  Testament — the  books  of  the  prophets 

146 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

— we  find  begins  with  Amos  the  herdsman-seer  of  Tekoa 
and  Bethel.  The  earlier  prophets,  such  as  Elijah  and 
Elisha,  spoke  only  for  their  day;  but  Amos,  Hosea, 
Isaiah,  Micah,  and  the  rest  of  the  later  prophets,  after 
giving  voice  to  their  great  messages  which  had  such  influ- 
ence in  their  own  lifetimes,  decided  to  preserve  these  mes- 
sages for  the  future  by  putting  them  in  writing,  so  sure 
were  they  of  the  eternal  truth  of  what  they  taught.  Then 
followed  the  great  literary  period  of  the  Hebrew  faith, 
during  which  all  the  precious  writings  which  had  come 
down  from  the  past,  in  the  form  of  law  codes,  psalms, 
proverbs,  chronicles,  prose,  and  poetry,  were  combined 
with  the  oral  traditions  and  carefully  edited — thus  pro- 
ducing our  present  Old  Testament. 

The  story  of  the  New  Testament  origins  is  much 
simpler.  The  Bible  of  Jesus,  of  Peter,  John,  and  Paul, 
was  of  course  simply  the  Old  Testament.  The  New 
Testament  began  with  Paul,  in  the  most  natural  possible 
way.  He  just  wrote  a  letter  to  his  friends  at  Thessalonica, 
in  the  little  church  he  had  founded  there,  to  encourage 
them  in  the  midst  of  persecution,  to  give  them  further 
instruction  about  matters  that  were  troubling  them,  espe- 
cially about  the  life  to  come,  and  to  tell  them  of  his  joy 
in  hearing,  through  Timothy  their  mutual  friend,  of  their 
steadfastness  in  the  faith  of  Christ.  It  is  just  a  friendly 
letter,  full  of  messages  of  kindly  sympathy  and  wise  and 
helpful  teachings — but  it  began  our  New  Testament.  We 
call  it  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.  Soon  after 
came  another  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  then  to  the 
Galatians,  the  Romans,  the  Christians  at  Corinth,  Ephesus, 
Philippi,  etc.;  and  so  precious  were  these  letters,  the 
churches  made  copies  of  them  and  exchanged  with  the 

147 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Christians  in  the  other  cities,  until  each  church  had  most 
if  not  all  of  these  noble  letters  of  the  great  apostle.  These 
sacred  messages  from  their  great  friend  and  "founder,  full 
of  instruction  and  holy  memories,  came  to  be  read  at  their 
meetings  on  the  Lord's  Day,  as  Sunday  was  then  called, 
and  thus  came  to  be  a  regular  feature  of  Christian  wor- 
ship. 

Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to 
draw  up  a  narrative  concerning  those  matters 
which  have  been  fulfilled  among  us,  even  as  they 
delivered  them  unto  us,  who  from  the  beginning 
were  eyewitnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word,  it 
seemed  good  to  me  also,  having  traced  the  course 
of  all  things  accurately  from  the  first,  to  write 
unto  thee  in  order,  most  excellent  Theophilus; 
that  thou  mightest  know  the  certainty  concerning 
the  things  wherein  thou  wast  instructed. — Luke 
1 :  1-4. 

Meanwhile  the  gospels  were  being  written.  So  long 
as  living  men  could  remember  the  face  and  form  of  Jesus 
and  recall  the  very  scenes  and  incidents  of  his  wonder- 
ful life  story,  which  they  had  shared  with  him,  there  was 
no  need  of  writing  that  story.  But  as  one  by  one  these 
men  died,  many  of  them  suffering  the  martyr's  death,  it 
became  evident  that  someone  must  write  the  story  of 
Jesus,  or  the  .world  would  soon  forget  him.  Matthew, 
the  converted  tax-gatherer,  had  evidently  used  his  pen  and 
ink-horn  to  good  purpose  while  he  traveled  as  a  disciple 
of  the  Lord,  for  an  early  tradition  tells  of  the  "Logia  of 
Matthew,"  which  seems  to  have  been  just  written  notes 
of  Jesus'  most  precious  sayings,  like  the  papyrus  pages 

148 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 


S^ 


recently  found  in  the  Nile  valley,  which  we  mentioned 
above.  This  collection  of  Jesus'  teachings  was  used  by 
Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke,  to  help  them  to  write  accurate 
accounts,  each  from  his  own  viewpoint,  of  the  life-work 
of  their  great  Master.  We  call  them  gospels,  which 
means  good  news,  because  they  have  given  to  the  world 
the  most  wonderful  story  ever  told,  the  best  news  ever 
brought  to  men. 

In  the  course  of  the  first  century  the  other  New  Testa- 
ment books  were  written  and  a  great  collection  of  writ- 
ings followed,  by  the  early  Christian  scholars,  some  of 
them  almost  equal  in  value  to  parts  of  the  Bible.  These 
are  included  in  the  "New  Testament  Apocrypha."  For 
centuries  the  books  of  the  Bible  were  not  bound  together 
in  a  single  volume.  They  were  kept  in  separate  manu- 
script rolls.  And  it  was  not  easy  to  determine  exactly 
what  writings  should  be  included  in  the  Bible  and  what 
should  be  left  out.  Some  thought  the  letters  of  Clement 
and  Barnabas  were  as  helpful  as  Second  Peter  or  Jude. 
It  was  not  until  1546  A.  D.  that  the  question  of  "the 
canon"  was  finally  settled  for  the  Catholic  Church,  when 
the  Council  of  Trent  voted  to  fix  permanently  the  con- 
tents of  the  Bible  as  we  now  have  it.  It  is  interesting 
to  remember  that  the  chapter  headings,  the  marginal 
references  and  footnotes,  and  the  chapter  and  verse 
divisions  were  not  in  the  ancient  manuscripts.  The 
division  into  verses  was  first  used  in  the  Geneva  Bible, 
printed  in  1560.  They  were  arranged  by  Robert  Stephen 
on  horseback  while  on  a  journey  from  Paris  to  Lyons. 
Only  shortly  before  that  time  Cardinal  Hugo  had  origi- 
nated the  chapter  divisions,  for  greater  convenience  in 
his  Latin  Concordance. 

■       149 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Our  American  Standard  Revision  is  the  most  accurate 
translation  of  the  Bible  in  English.  It  is  the  latest  of  ten 
successive  English  translations,  made  necessary  by  the 
natural  changes  in  the  language,  and  by  later  discoveries 
in  biblical  scholarship.  For  instance,  the  three  greatest 
manuscripts,  mentioned  above,  were  all  found  after  the 
King  James  Version,  our  "authorized  version,"  v^as  trans- 
lated. The  influence  of  these  ten  English  versions  of  the 
Bible  upon  the  history  and  literature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  is  beyond  all  computation.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
Bible  has  been  the  greatest  moulding  influence  in  our 
history,  creating  our  ideals,  and  largely  controlling  our 
national  conscience  and  our  destiny. 

Finding  God  in  the  Bible's  Best 

Men  come  back  again  and  again  to  this  old  Bible,  so 
•wonderfully  preserved  through  the  centuries,  because 
ihey  find  God  there.  The  purpose  of  the  Bible  might  be 
thus  concisely  stated:  "That  they  might  know  thee,  the 
only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  sent" 
(John  17:3).  "The  eternal  value  of  the  Bible,"  says 
Rev.  T.  R.  Williams,  "is  in  the  clearness,  the  fulness,  the 
richness,  the  certainty  of  that  idea  of  God,  which  lifts 
this  literature  into  its  place  of  supremacy  in  the  literature 
of  the  world." 

We  find  God  in  the  remarkable  story  of  the  Hebrew 
people.  With  all  their  wanderings  and  follies,  'their 
greatest  leaders  were  men  who  knew  God  and  were  guided 
by  his  will.  As  we  read  the  Old  Testament  we  are  con- 
stantly reminded  of  the  hand  of  God  in  history.  Often 
they  misunderstood  him  and  misinterpreted  his  will.  Often 

150 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

in  the  ancient  story,  the  picture  of  Jehovah  which  the 
early  writers  givQ  us  is  not  like  the  Christian's  God,  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  was  simply  be- 
cause such  men  as  Abraham,  living  in  crude  and  primitive 
times,  could  not  know  God  as  well  as  we  with  the  Chris- 
tian light  now  know  him.  It  is  in  the  Bible's  best  that 
we  find  God.  We  find  him  with  Elijah  on  the  mountain 
as  he  hears  the  still,  small  voice  which  sends  him  back 
to  duty.  We  find  him  with  Isaiah  in  the  Temple  as  he 
listens,  awe-struck,  to  the  message  which  calls  him  to 
prophetic  service,  while  the  air  of  the  temple-spaces  be- 
comes vibrant  with  spiritual  energy,' and  the  very  thresh- 
old seems  to  rock  and  tremble. 

We  find  God  in  the  tender  passages  of  the  Psalms, 
revealing  the  quiet  experience  of  men  whose  hearts  re- 
sponded to  God's  guiding  presence.  "The  Lord  is  my  Shep- 
herd; I  shall  not  want.  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in 
green  pastures,  he  leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters,  he 
restoreth  my  soul."  We  find  him  in  the  heroic  experi- 
ences of  the  prophets.  We  see  him  stand  by  the  side  of 
Amos  as  he  confronts  the  priests  of  a  corrupt  shrine  at 
Bethel,  and  by  the  side  of  Elijah  as  he  dares  confront  the 
coward  Ahab,  and  of  Nathan  as  he  dares  rebuke  King 
David.  We  find  God  dwelling  in  the  hearts  of  his  people 
and  transforming  their  character.  See  him  change  Moses, 
from  a  cringing  exile  and  self-confessed  fugitive  murderer, 
into  a  man  of  power,  a  trainer  of  a  race  of  slaves  till  they 
become  a  nation,  a  man  of  leadership  and  vision  and  self- 
control.  Somehow  God  made  Moses  the  greatest  charac- 
ter in  ancient  history.  See  him  change  Peter  from  a 
profane  fisherman  of  Galilee,  erratic  and  self-assertive 
and  superficial,  yes,   even   cowardly   when   danger  came, 

151 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

into  the  leader  of  the  pilgrims  of  the  Jesus  Way,  a  man 
of  deep  conviction  and  strong  faith,  fearless  before  gov- 
ernors and  kings.  Supremely,  the  Bible  shows  us  God 
in  the  person  of  Jesus  the  Christ.  The  Old  Testament 
converges  toward  him;  the  New  Testament  radiates  from 
him.  He  is  the  climax  of  the  Bible's  story  and  the  sum- 
mit of  its  revelation  of  God.  His  teachings  set  the  stand- 
ard for  our  judgment  of  all  the  other  writings  in  the 
Scriptures.  They  stand  or  stand  aside  as  they  agree  with 
his  crystal  teachings  and  his  perfect  life. 

Ye  search  the  scriptures,  because  ye  think  that 
in  them  ye  have  eternal  life;  and  these  are  they 
which  bear  witness  of  me. — John  5 :  39. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

In  what  sense  is  the  Bible  a  "book  of  life"?  In  what 
does  its  unique  value  consist? 

How  does  the  Bible  differ  from  such  mysterious  "holy 
books"  as  the  Koran  and  the  Book  of  Mormon?  Were 
the  writers  of  the  Bible  superhuman? 

Does  the  Bible  claim  to  be  infallible,  or  verbally  in- 
spired? What  is  the  danger  of  indiscriminate  quotation, 
which  assumes  all  parts  of  the  Bible  to  be  of  equal  value? 

What  do  you  think  of  the  variety  in  the  Bible's  mes- 
sages? Mention  some  of  the  different  kinds  of  literature 
in  it. 

How  did  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing  affect  the 
Bible?  How  was  it  preserved  before  that  time?  How 
long  did  it  take  Wycliffe's  men  to  copy  the  Bible  by 
hand?  Why  are  there  no  manuscripts  earlier  than  the 
fourth  century? 

What  is  the  oldest  book  of  our  Old  Testament  in  its 

152 


GOD  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  BIBLE 

present  form?  Who  began  the  New  Testament?  Which 
book  was  first  written?  For  what  purpose?  Why  does 
Luke  say  he  wrote  his  gospel?  For  a  long  time  how 
were  these  separate  books  kept?  When  was  it  finally 
settled  what  books  belonged  in  the  Bible  and  what  did 
not?  Why  have  so  many  English  revisions  been  neces- 
sary? 

What  is  the  greatest  thing  you  find  in  the  Bible  ?  Which 
books  mean  the  most  to  you,  and  why?  In  what  Bible 
characters  do  you  find  God's  influence  most  clearly? 


153 


CHAPTER  IX 

DISCOVERING  IN  THE  BIBLE  GOD'S 
METHOD  WITH  MEN 

The  Inspired  Men  behind  the  Book 

After  our  discussion  in  the  previous  chapter  of  the 
nature  of  the  Bible  and  its  romantic  history,  we  are  now 
ready  to  consider  the  question,  "In  what  sense  is  the 
Bible  inspired?"  Very  little  is  said  in  the  Bible  about 
inspiration.  Most  of  our  ideas  about  the  subject  come 
from  other  sources.  The  word  inspire  means  literally 
^'inbreathe."  The  old-fashioned  idea  was  that  God  so 
"breathed  his  Spirit  into  the  writers  that  the  Bible  as  they 
wrote  it  became  an  infallible  book,  incapable  of  error  be- 
cause practically  written  by  God.  This  theory  was  partly 
based  on  the  translation  of  II  Tim.  3:16  in  the  King 
James  version,  which  reads,  "Every  scripture  is  inspired 
of  God.  .  .  ."  Without  discussing  this  much  mooted  verse, 
we  note  in  passing  that  the  American  Revised  Bible 
renders  it  thus: 

"Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profit- 
able for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  which  is  in  righteousness." 

Whatever  Paul  meant  by  this  sentence,  it  is  certainly 
true  that  the  Bible  nowhere  teaches  that  God  dictated  to 
the  writers  of  the  Scriptures  what  they  should  write. 

154 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

In  the  exact  sense  of  the  term,  no  book  is  inspired.  It 
is  the  men  hack  of  the  hook.  We  find  inspired  lives 
rather  than  inspired  writings.  This  is  the  clear  teaching 
of  Scripture,  and  in  accordance  with  the  facts  of  life. 
Let  us  look  at  the  following  passages : 

For  no  prophecy  ever  came  by  the  will  of  man : 
but  men  spake  from  God,  being  moved  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.— II  Pet.  1:21. 

But  the  things  which  God  foreshowed  by  the 
mouth  of  all  the  prophets,  that  his  Christ  should 
suffer. — Acts  3: 18. 

Concerning  which  salvation  the  prophets 
sought  and  searched  diligently  .  .  .  searching 
what  time  .  .  .  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in 
them  did  point  unto,  when  it  testified  beforehand 
the  suft'erings  of  Christ,  and  the  glories  that 
should  follow  them. — I  Pet.  i:  10,  11. 

But  there  is  a  spirit  in  man, 

And  the  breath  of  the  Almighty  giveth  them 
understanding.  — Job  32 :  8. 

It  is  clear  from  these  passages  that  the  prophets  were 
thought  to  be  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  last  of 
these  suggests  what  was  meant  by  it.  God's  "breath" 
somehow  gave  them  understanding;  that  is,  God's  influ- 
ence touched  the  spirit  of  the  man  and  gave  him  wisdom. 
This  is  simply  saying  what  we  tried  to  say  in  chapter  one, 
that  the  living  God  can  make  known  his  will  to  living  men; 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  can  dwell  in  a  human  life.  "The 
idea  of  inspiration,"  says  J.  Paterson  Smyth,  "is  by  no 
means  exclusively  Jewish  or  Christian.  The  classical 
authors  frequently  speak  of  the  'divine  frenzy,'  or  'afflatus,' 

155 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  'being  borne  along  by  God,'  being  *God-inspired,'  etc. 
Artistic  powers  and  poetic  talents,  gifts  of  prediction,  the 
warmth  of  love,  and  the  battle  frenzy  were  all  ascribed 
to  the  power  of  the  god  possessing  the  man  jnspired. 
These  ideas  and  words  afterwards  passed  over  into  Chris- 
tian theological  language,  and  necessarily  influenced  in 
some  degree  the  conception  of  inspiration  in  the  early 
Church."^ 

How  God  Inspired  the  Herdsman  of  Tekoa 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  inspiration  has  to  do  with  life, 
not  with  a  mechanical  matter  like  writing.  It  is  also  clear 
that  the  men  referred  to  as  inspired  men  were  the  prophets, 
the  men  who  "spoke  for  God."  Perhaps  we  shall  best 
understand  the  process  of  inspiration  if  we  take  a  specific 
case,  like  that  of  the  prophet  Amos.  He  was  evidently 
an  ordinary  sort  of  person,  a  poor  shepherd  living  in  the 
''rough,  arid  wilderness  of  Tekoa,  southeast  of  Jerusalem, 
eking  out  a  living  with  the  help  of  some  sycamore-fig 
trees,  the  poorest  kind  of  figs  that  were  cultivated.  He 
spent  most  of  his  time  alone  with  his  sheep,  under  the 
open  sky;  but  with  occasional  visits  to  the  city,  probably 
to  market  his  produce.  In  the  quiet  of  the  open  country, 
God  taught  Amos  of  himself;  in  the  town  he  learned 
of  men.  In  the  rural  school  of  God's  presence,  he  dis- 
covered the  sublime,  majestic  holiness  of  the  Infinite  One. 
In  the  town.  Bethel,  the  commercial  and  religious  capital 
of  the  northern  kingdom,  he  saw  the  hypocrisy  of  the 
priests,  the  inhumanity  of  the  king,  and  the  wickedness 
of  the  people,  especially  the  social  injustice  of  the  rich. 

1  "How  God  Inspired  the  Bible." 

156 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

This  startling  contrast  between  God  and  men  taught 
Amos  his  duty.  God  gave  him  courage,  and  the  burden 
of  a  great  message.  He  felt  his  responsibility,  because 
no  one  else  was  voicing  that  message. 

So  we  find  this  brave  herdsman  bursting  in  on  the  smug 
self-content  of  Jeroboam  II  and  his  priests  and  nobles  at 
Bethel,  as  suddenly  as  Elijah  appeared  before  Ahab.  To 
them  he  was  only  a  nobody,  and  his  confident  "Thus 
saith  Jehovah''  aroused  first  a  smile,  and  then  their  wrath. 
His  torrential  eloquence  swept  away  all  opposition  till  he 
had  uttered  his  message.  God  had  made  his  message  clear 
to  him,  and  he  gave  voice  to  it  with  fearful  emphasis. 
The  w^oes  he  pronounced  upon  princes,  priests,  and  peo- 
ple must  have  blanched  their  faces  and  made  them 
tremble !  After  describing  in  scathing  language  their 
godless  life,  he  called  them  to  repentance: 

Seek  good,  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  live;  and 
so  Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts,  will  be  with  you, 
as  ye  say.  Hate  the  evil,  and  love  the  good,  and 
establish  justice  in  the  gate:  it  may  be  that 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts,  will  be  gracious  unto 
the  remnant  of  Joseph. — Amos  5:  14,  15. 

Then  the  vials  of  his  contempt  are  poured  out  upon  the 
faithless  priests  of  the  city,  whose  hypocrisy  is  partly 
responsible  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  Speaking  for 
Jehovah,  he  declares: 

I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts,  and  I  will  take  no 
delight  in  your  solemn  assemblies.     Yea,  though 
ye  offer  me  your  burnt-offerings  and  meal-offer- 
ings, I  will  not  accept  them ;  neither  will  I  regard 
157 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

the  peace-offerings  of  your  fat  beasts.  Take  thou 
away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs;  for  I  will 
not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  viols.  But  let  justice 
roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as  a 
mighty  stream. — Amos  5:21-24. 

Of  course  he  was  driven  from  the  city  by  the  angry 
priests,  and  he  was  lucky  to  escape  with  his  life;  but  he 
had  fulfilled  his  duty,  he  had  delivered  the  message  he 
believed  God  had  given  him.  He  had  unburdened  his 
soul.  Henceforth  the  sins  of  the  people  of  Bethel  were 
on  their  own  consciences,  not  his ;  for  he  had  taught  them 
Jehovah's  will.  In  this  story,  a  true  story  of  a  human  life 
lived  twenty-eight  centuries  ago,  we  see  what  is  meant 
by  "inspiration."  God  had  touched  this  man  Amos  with 
his  divine  Spirit.  He  had  somehow  put  in  his  heart  the 
sacred  fire  of  a  great  message,  and  it  burned  within  him 
till  he  uttered  it.  The  faithful  preaching  of  that  earnest 
man  of  God  may  or  may  not  have  brought  to  repentance 
the  people  who  heard  his  living  voice;  we  do  not  know. 
But  certainly  his  message,  echoed  by  many  other  voices 
all  through  these  centuries,  has  brought  his  challenge  of 
social  righteousness  and  genuine  religion  to  myriads  of 
men.  We  know  the  man's  life  must  have  been  inspired, 
that  God  must  have  been  back  of  his  words,  because  we 
feel  the  inspiration  of  his  message  for  our  own  lives  and 
for  our  generation. 

The  Age-Long  Contest  betzveen  Priests  and  Prophets 

This  story  of  Amos  and  his  message  interprets  the  Old 
Testament.  The  prophetic  movement  is  the  heart  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  as  well  as  the  saving  of  the  Hebrew 

158 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

race  and  the  Hebrew  faith.  Compared  with  the  majestic 
character  of  the  prophets,  the  priests  and  kings  and  wise 
men  were  mere  pawns  and  puppets.  It  was  through  the 
prophets,  appearing  at  uncertain  intervals,  but  when  most 
needed,  that  Jehovah  taught  and  led  and  saved  the  Hebrew 
people.  They  are  the  most  truly  inspired  men  of  the 
Old  Testament.  It  is  then  no  wonder  that  their  writings 
are  the  most  inspirational  portions  of  the  Scriptures,  be- 
side which  the  legal  and  narrative  portions  are  dull  and 
prosaic.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that  some  of  the 
Psalms  and  parts  of  the  historical  books  were  written  by 
prophetic  writers.  They  are  easily  distinguished  from 
the  portions  written  by  the  priests,  which  comprise  ''the 
priestly  code." 

Through  much  of  Hebrew  history  there  is  plainly  seen 
a  long-continued  struggle  between  the  priests  and  the 
prophets.  The  rivalry  between  the  professional  religion 
of  the  priest  and  the  vital  religion  of  the  prophet  was 
perhaps  quite  natural.  It  is  hard  for  an  hereditary  priest- 
hood not  to  become  corrupt.  It  is  easy  for  a  religion  ex- 
pressed mainly  in  ritual  and  burnt-offerings  to  become 
purely  formal  and  soon  a  hollow  mockery.  Again  and 
again,  in  unspiritual  generations,  the  efforts  of  the  priests 
degenerated  into  merely  keeping  up  the  machinery  of  reli- 
gion, keeping  the  Temple  open  and  the  ritual  running.  In 
their  eyes,  the  chief  sin  of  the  people  was  not  a  wicked 
life  but  neglect  of  tithes  and  vows  and  offerings  in  the 
Temple.  From  this  formality  the  step  was  short  and 
easy  to  the  condition  where  the  priests  themselves  lived 
immoral,  irreligious  lives.  Then  usually  God  sent  a 
prophet ! 

The  prophet  was  not  professionally  pious;  but  he  was 
159 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

personally  religious,  and  he  had  a  vivid  sense  of  God  and 
duty.  Sometimes  he  lived  with  men  (like  Isaiah),  some- 
times not  (like  Elijah)  ;  but  he  always  lived  with  God. 
Almost  always  he  was  a  man  of  the  open  country.  God 
seems  to  make  seers  more  naturally  under  the  stars  and 
among  the  wide  spaces  and  the  far  mountain  visions.  The 
twin  passion  of  all  the  prophets  was  God  and  righteous- 
ness, especially  social  righteousness.  Whatever  text  the 
prophet  began  with,  he  preached  on  social  justice  among 
men,  demanded  by  a  righteous  God.  The  most  wonderful 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament  are  the  flaming  texts  of 
these  prophetic  sermons,  which  burned  their  way  into  the 
consciences  of  the  Hebrews  and  often  put  faithless  priests 
to  silence  in  self-condemned  dismay.  Listen  to  this  ar- 
raignment of  the  hollow  rites  of  a  priestly  religion,  by 
the  prophet  Isaiah,  as  he  champions  the  religion  of  the 
prophets : 

Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  rulers  of  Sodom ; 
give  ear  unto  the  law  of  our  God,  ye  people  of 
Gomorrah.  What  unto  me  is  the  multitude  of 
your  sacrifices  ?  saith  Jehovah :  I  have  had  enough 
of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed 
beasts;  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bul- 
locks, or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats.  W^hen  ye  come 
to  appear  before  me,  who  hath  required  this  at 
your  hand,  to  trample  my  courts?  Bring  no  more 
vain  oblations;  incense  is  an  abomination  unto 
me ;  new  moon  and  sabbath,  the  calling  of  assem- 
blies— I  cannot  away  with  iniquity  and  the  solemn 
meeting.  Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed 
feasts  my  soul  hateth;  they  are  a  trouble  unto 
me ;  I  am  weary  of  bearing  them.  And  when  ye 
spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes 
160 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

from  you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I 
will  not  hear :  your  hands  are  full  of  blood.  Wash 
you,  make  you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  of  your 
doings  from  before  mine  eyes ;  cease  to  do  evil ; 
learn  to  do  well;  seek  justice,  relieve  the  op- 
pressed, judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow. 
Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith 
Jehovah:  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they 
shall  be  as  white  as  snow;  though  they  be  red 
like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool. — Isa.  i :  10-18. 

Isaiah,  one  of  the  finest  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
is  full  of  such  inspirational  passages,  uttered  at  white 
heat  by  a  man  afire  with  the  sense  of  God  in  his  life. 
To  Isaiah,  God  was  the  most  real  of  all  persons,  and  His 
will  was  righteousness  and  justice  among  men.  The  same 
was  true  of  all  the  noble  succession  of  inspired  prophets. 
Isaiah  was  the  prophet  among  the  princes,  and  the  prince 
among  the  prophets;  but  the  message  of  Micah,  the 
prophet  of  the  poor,  was  essentially  the  same : 

Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  Jehovah,  and 
bow  myself  before  the  high  God?  shall  I  come 
before  him  with  burnt-offerings,  with  calves  a 
year  old?  will  Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands 
of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil? 
shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgression, 
the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  He 
hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good ;  and  what 
doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and 
to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?— Micah  6:6-8. 

Space  forbids  further  quotations.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
these  inspired  men  of  the  Old  Testament,  who  preached 

161 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

true  religion  many  centuries  before  Christ,  were  the  van- 
guard of  the  Christian  apostles;  and  John  the  Baptist, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  his  apostles  were  the  prophets* 
successors.  The  teachings  of  Jesus  give  us  so  clearly  the 
accents  of  the  prophets,  especially  his  words  on  social 
justice  and  his  woes  against  the  Pharisees,  that  it  must  be 
that  he  himself  found  great  inspiration,  as  a  boy  on  the 
Nazareth  hillside,  in  studying  these  flaming  messages  of 
the  grand  old  heroes  of  his  ancestral  faith.  It  may  be  that 
he  even  caught  from  the  ancient  prophets  the  outlines  of 
his  marvelous  vision  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  which 
he  made  the  great  goal  to  challenge  the  faith  of  the  future. 

God's  Progressive  Revelation  to  Discerning  Seers 

This  brings  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Bible  is  the 
record  of  God's  progressive  revelation  to  the  world  of 
men.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  not  homogeneous  in  its 
material  nor  uniform  in  its  value.  It  is  almost  as  variant 
in  its  religious  value  as  it  is  varied  in  its  literary  form. 
The  degree  of  its  inspirational  quality,  in  different  por- 
tions, varies  widely.  The  priestly  writers  were  far  less 
inspired  men  than  were  the  prophets ;  and  the  ages  of  the 
patriarchs  and  of  the  tribal  judges  were  not  as  favor- 
able for  religious  progress  and  lofty  spiritual  messages 
as  was  the  golden  age  of  the  inspired  prophets. 

The  Father  God  has  always  been  ready  to  reveal  to 
men  his  will  and  the  power  of  his  loving  presence;  but 
he  has  never  been  able  to  do  it  except  when  men  co- 
operate. Gradually  he  has  evolved  in  human  history  a 
succession  of  discerning  seers  capable  of  hearing  his 
messages  within  their  souls  and  thus  learning  his  will, 

162 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

that  they  may  teach  their  fellowmen.  Through  the  long 
slow  centuries,  these  men  were  few,  their  vision  of  God 
was  imperfect,  and  their  hearts  were  poorly  attuned  to 
his  inner  voice.  Hence  the  divine  revelation  in  the  tribal 
days  was  crude  and  imperfect,  and  "there  was  no  frequent 
vision."  Religious  experience  and  the  faith-sense  have 
been  matters  of  gradual  growth  among  men,  so  God's- 
revelation  to  us  has  necessarily  been  progressive,  from 
meager  beginnings.  With  the  advent  of  the  greater 
prophets,  however,  God  found  discerning  seers  whose 
spirits  were  wonderfully  synchronized  to  his  quiet  mes- 
sages, until  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  he  found  one 
whose  perfect  spiritual  intuition  enabled  him  to  apprehend 
God's  truth  so  immediately  that  he  could  say  with  simple 
accuracy,  "I  am  the  Truth."  So  we  find  Jesus  to  be  more 
than  a  prophet,  though  he  had  the  prophetic  spirit  and 
the  prophetic  passion;  for  God's  Spirit  dwelt  within  him 
so  intimately  and  perfectly  he  could  truthfully  say,  "I 
and  the  Father  are  one."    This  is  the  great  incarnation. 

God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers 
in  the  prophets  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers 
manners,  hath  at  the  end  of  these  days  spoken 
unto  us  in  his  Son. — Heb.  1:1,2. 

The  Problem  of  Life:  The  Generation  and   Use  of 
Power 

From  this  climax  of  our  discussion,  the  consummation 
of  God's  purpose  through  inspired  lives,  found  in  its  per- 
fection in  the  person  of  the  Incarnate  Christ,  we  now  turn 
back  once  more  to  our  own  personal  needs  and  our  human 
experience.     It  is  our  hope  to  discover  what  value  this 

163 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

great  fact  of  inspiration  holds  for  us,  and  how  we  may 
share  in  the  religious  experience  of  the  ancient  prophets. 

It  seems  almost  trite  to  remark  that  the  constant  prob- 
lem of  life  is  the  generation  and  use  of  power.  We  do 
not  need  to  be  devotees  of  the  religion  of  force  to  accept 
this  fact,  for  there  are  other  forces  than  brute  force. 
Tower  is  fundamentally  moral  and  ultimately  personal. 
Yet  we  must  constantly  think  of  the  analogy  of  physical 
forces,  even  when  thinking  in  terms  of  the  spiritual.  I 
have  a  vivid  memory  of  one  June  morning,  years  ago, 
when  my  friend,  to  whom  this  book  is  inscribed,  intro- 
duced me  to  the  marvels  of  a  new  hydro-electric  plant  at 
"Deer  Rips"  on  the  Androscoggin,  which  he  as  an  elec- 
trical engineer  had  just  completed.  With  justifiable  pride 
he  showed  me  the  mighty  machinery,  generating  electrical 
energy'  to  the  amount  of  20,000  horse  power,  with  marvel- 
ous precision  and  freedom  from  friction,  and  the  high- 
tension  wires  over  which  this  energy  was  transmitted  for 
service  miles  away;  and  he  explained  how  all  this  power 
was  derived  from  the  high  levels  of  the  river  by  convert- 
ing the  water  power  into  the  more  mobile  electric  cur- 
rent, adapted  to  the  needs  of  men. 

The  primary  process  in  our  religious  life  seems  to  me 
much  like  this  hydro-electric  miracle.  Somehow,  in  the 
midst  of  the  boundless  resources  of  our  divine  environ- 
ment, we  must  generate  power.  In  God  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being,  and  his  personal  power  is  limitless. 
We  must  capture  the  high  tension  power  on  the  high 
levels  of  life  and  thus  make  our  personalities  eifective. 
In  many  a  commonplace  life  there  are  dammed  up  vast 
unused  energies.  These  stored  energies  must  be  released. 
Then  it  is  clear  that  the  next  great  problem  of  life  is  to 

164 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

conserve  and  harness  and  apply  the  energy  we  have  thus 
generated,  and  over  some  sort  of  invisible  high-tension 
wires  to  carry  it  to  a  field  of  human  service.  All  this 
involves  most  keenly  the  personal  challenge  which  thou- 
sands of  Christian  men  are  feeling  today  in  the  pressure 
of  the  times.  In  the  providence  of  God  our  boys,  by  the 
hundreds  of  thousands,  are  experiencing  a  rebirth.  It  is 
nothing  less  than  that.  The  new  and  tremendous  re- 
sponsibility which  has  fallen  upon  our  American  young 
men,  especially  in  the  decade  of  the  twenties,  has  developed 
suddenly  a  new  manliness,  a  deepened  sense  of  duty  and 
of  the  privilege  of  serving  their  country.  They  experience 
a  keen  joy  as  well  as  a  sobering  sense  of  burden,  as  they 
feel  this  great  nation  leaning  hard  upon  them.  For 
thousands  of  the  boys  this  means  not  merely  the  rebuild- 
ing of  physical  efficiency  to  a  point  of  high  perfection.  It 
means  the  rebirth  of  the  soul.  They  face  a  mighty  chance 
for  service.  They  have  made  a  solemn  consecration. 
You  can  see  it  in  their  faces  and  in  their  whole  demeanor. 
These  soldiers  of  the  new  crusade  are  challenging  the 
rest  of  America's  manhood  to  live  the  soldierly  life  at 
home,  whether  or  not  we  shall  be  needed  "over  there." 
They  challenge  us  to  live  the  maximum  life,  the  life  of 
maximum  spiritual  power,  for  the  greatest  possible  effi- 
ciency in  service,  whatever  that  service  may  be.  In  meet- 
ing this  challenge,  every  Christian  man  will  turn  to  his 
Bible  with  the  most  earnest  question,  HozvF 

Finally,    be    strong   in   the   Lord,    and    in   the 
strength  of  his  might.     Put  on  the  whole  armor 
of   God,   that  ye   may  be   able   to   stand   against 
the  wiles  of  the  devil. — Eph.  6:  lo,  ii. 
165 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

The  Bible's  Greatest  Lesson:  A  First-Hand  Touch 
with  God 

It  is  a  great  experience  when  a  man  is  sure  he  has 
found  God  in  the  Bible.  But  too  many  of  us  stop  there. 
If  we  do,  we  have  not  yet  found  the  greatest  value  in 
the  Bible.  If  we  believe  God  really  spoke  to  the  hearts 
of  Moses  and  Elijah,  Amos,  Isaiah,  and  the  rest,  we  have 
only  begun  to  have  faith  in  God.  Must  we  think  he  has 
spoken  to  no  one  since?  Must  we  believe  that  God  was 
more  really  in  the  world  in  Bible  days  than  he  is  in  our 
w^onderf ul  world  today  ?  Must  we  believe  that  he  wrought 
miracles  only  then,  and  that  the  age  of  miracles  is  past? 
We  recognize  that  marvelous  help  was  given  to  the  heroes 
of  Bible  days  for  their  struggles  with  evil.  Must  we 
meekly  allow  that  such  help  is  not  for  us  and  ours?  We 
see  evidence  in  the  lives  of  the  faithful  prophets  that  God 
dwelt  in  their  hearts  and  gave  them  power,  made  them 
''inspired"  men,  who  did  great  deeds  of  spiritual  valor 
for  God  and  fellowmen.  But  must  zve  sadly  believe  the 
prophets  have  no  successors f  Has  their  noble  line  died 
out  in  all  the  earth?  Cannot  God's  Spirit  dwell  in  our 
lives  as  well,  and  make  us  men  of  power? 

"If  I  thought,"  writes  T.  R.  Williams,  "that  some  super- 
natural aid  was  given  to  Paul,  which  cannot  be  given  to 
me,  then  I  could  only  say  that  he  was  too  far  away  to 
give  me  any  help;  he  is  in  the  clouds  and  I  am  on  the 
earth.  But  if  I  find  that  Paul  struggled  with  passions 
and  prejudices  and  weaknesses  and  opposition  and  im- 
perfect knowledge,  just  as  we  do,  and  yet  rose  to  such 
heights  of  victory,  I  see  up  along  the  mountain  of  moral 
obligation  a  shining  track  of  possibility  for  me;  and 
though  the  rocks  are  up  there,  and  the  precipices;  though 

166 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

there  will  be  storms  and  mountain  torrents;  still,  since 
Paul  said,  'In  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  him  that  love.d  us,'  I  may  too.  The  Power 
which  availed  for  him  will  avail  for  me,  and  I  can  link 
my  feebleness  to  it,  as  he  did.  The  heroes  of  the  Bible 
had  no  help,  either  to  live  or  to  write,  which  you  may 
not  have."" 

It  is  folly  to  imagine  that  the  splendid  unity  of  God's 
world  and  of  his  personal  relations  with  his  children  has 
ever  been  broken.  The  God  who  was  with  Isaiah  and 
Amos  in  a  vital  j)artnership  of  service  can  be  our  Com- 
rade God  today.  There  are  not  "two  dispensations" ;  there 
is  only  one.  Our  God  is  the  same  as  always.  He  has 
never  changed  his  method  of  approach  and  communion 
with  men.  Surely  he  is  just  as  fully  in  the  world  as  ever 
he  was.  His  presence  broods  over  our  prairies  and  moun- 
tains and  far-sweeping  shores  just  as  truly  as  over 
Bethlehem's  plain,  Mt.  Olivet,  or  the  shores  of  Galilee, 
in  the  land  of  long  ago.  We  may  not  be  willing  to  accept 
Mr.  Wells'  theory  of  a  "becoming  God,"  a  growing  God, 
and  we  need  not ;  but  certainly  we  should  not  imagine  that 
our  God  grows  less  with  the  passing  of  the  years,  re- 
stricted in  his  activities,  limited  in  his  access  unto  men ! 
"Is  the  Lord's  hand  shortened  that  he  cannot  save?'* 
Plainly  it  was  only  a  gross  failure  of  our  fathers'  faith 
when  they  found  the  age  of  miracles  only  in  the  Bible, 
and  heard  God's  voice  speaking  only  there.  God  will 
speak  to  the  discerning  heart  today  just  as  surely  as  ever 
he  spoke  to  discerning  seers  in  the  days  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets. 


»  "ShaU  We  Understand  the  Bible?"  p.  8$. 
167 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

It  is  refreshing  to  find  in  Dr.  Palmer's  "The  Drift  To- 
ward Religion"  a  beautifully  clear  statement  of  this  same 
conviction.  At  the  end  of  his  chapter  on  the  Bible,  he 
says,  "The  great  thing  which  the  Bible  can  do  for  our 
religious  life  is  not  to  present  to  us  an  artificially  pre- 
served message  from  God  to  which  we  can  go  to  learn  his 
will.  It  is  rather  so  to  present  to  us  the  spectacle  of  other 
men  in  other  days  hearing  his  voice  and  finding  help  in 
his  presence  that  we  shall  be  inspired  to  follow  their 
example  and  open  our  lives  to  the  indwelling  of  his  Spirit. 
We  also  are  to  be  responsive  to  his  still,  small  voice  and 
go  out  into  our  world  to  find  every  common  bush  aflame 
with  God.  The  supreme  value  of  the  Bible  is  not  merely 
to  find  God  there,  but  to  gain  inspiration  to  find  him  here. 
Each  age  must  renew  for  itself  something  akin  to  the 
experience  recorded  in  the  Bible." 

And  there  ran  a  young  man,  and  told  Moses, 
and  said,  Eldad  and  Medad  do  prophesy  in  the 
camp.  And  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  the  minis- 
ter of  Moses,  one  of  his  chosen  men,  answered 
and  said.  My  lord  Moses,  forbid  them.  And 
Moses  said  unto  him.  Art  thou  jealous  for  my 
sake?  would  that  all  Jehovah's  people  were 
prophets,  that  Jehovah  would  put  his  Spirit  upon 
them  ! — ^Num.  1 1 :  27-29. 

God's  Method  of  Making  Men  Who  Can  Wield  His 
Power 

It  is  clear  that  the  life  of  power  is  the  life  that  lets 
God  in.  When  infinite  Power  gets  into  a  human  life  and 
dwells  there,  that  life  must  grow,  and  grow  strong.     It 

168 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

cannot  help  it.  Human  weakness  means  a  life  that  leaves 
God  out,  that  reckons  on  getting  on  without  him.  Whether 
it  be  an  ordinary  man  on  the  street,  or  a  Bonaparte,  the 
reckless  neglect  of  God  is  a  fatal  weakness,  too  danger- 
ous to  risk.    But  God  within  means  power. 

The  Bible  shows  us  the  method.  It  introduces  us  to 
ordinary  men  of  the  sea  and  of  the  soil,  fishermen,  farmers, 
very  ordinary  men  like  Peter  the  impulsive  and  profane, 
John  the  impetuous  and  vindictive,  Moses  the  fugitive 
murderer,  and  Isaiah  the  courtier;  and  then  shows  us. 
how  these  men  let  the  living  God  into  their  lives,  and 
then  outgrew  themselves  marvelously,  till  we  hardly 
recognize  their  former  selves  in  the  splendidly  heroic 
personalities  God  helped  them  to  become.  After  years- 
in  obscurity  and  exile  in  ^lidian,  Moses  found  God,  and 
at  the  same  time  found  a  life  mission.  God's  Spirit  entered 
his  soul,  and  soon  he  began  to  outgrow  the  cabined  life 
that  he  had  lived  for  years;  and  with  the  larger  life  came 
larger  powers.  Against  all  but  impossible  odds  he  was 
able  to  lead  out  of  bondage  a  race  of  hereditary  slaves 
and  so  train  them,  practically  alone  with  God's  help,  that 
they  became  a  nation,  and  ere  long  a  mighty  people.  This 
exploit  made  Moses,  the  Midian  fugitive,  a  failure  at 
forty,  into  the  greatest  personality  of  antiquity. 

And  so  it  was  with  the  fishermen  of  Galilee,  the  com- 
rades of  Jesus.  At  his  trial  and  crucifixion,  Peter  was 
an  arrant  coward  and  John  was  a  plain  slacker.  But  in 
a  very  few  days  both  men  had  wonderfully  changed.  They 
became  bold  and  fearless  defenders  of  their  Master  and 
eloquent  preachers  of  the  Jesus  Way.  The  change  was  as 
complete  as  it  was  sudden.  It  must  have  seemed  to  their 
friends  miraculous.     See  them  healing  the  lame  man  in 

169 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

the  Temple  in  the  name  of  Jesus!  Hear  them  publicly 
arraigning  the  Jewish  leaders  for  crucifying  so  good  and 
great  a  man  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth !  See  them,  when 
brought  before  the  Jewish  supreme  court,  refusing  to  be 
muzzled,  and  declaring  they  must  obey  God  rather  than 
men !  In  doing  these  brave  things,  they  took  their  very 
lives  in  their  hands,  and  were  lucky  to  escape  alive. 
Where  did  all  this  courage  come  from?  The  Jewish 
leaders  discovered  the  answer.  "They  took  knowledge 
of  them  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus."  And  they 
marveled,  for  they  perceived  that  they  were  ignorant  and 
uneducated  men.  More  than  that,  they  believed  that  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  was  still  living,  and  was  with  them  as  he 
promised.  From  Jesus  they  had  learned  the  method  of 
the  life  of  spiritual  power.  As  he  had  let  God's  Spirit 
in,  till  it  filled  his  very  soul,  and  made  possible  his  won- 
derful life,  they  likewise  opened  their  hearts  to  this  Spirit 
of  power.  In  a  real  sense  they  became  Christ's  men,  for 
they  reincarnated  his  spirit  in  their  lives.  He  lived  anew 
in  them.  And  soon  after  at  Antioch,  the  people  began 
to  call  them  and  their  friends  Christians — the  people  with 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  their  lives.  At  first  it  was  a  nick- 
name, an  epithet  of  shame;  then  it  was  welcomed  as  a 
title  of  honor,  and  it  has  stuck  to  Jesus^  friends  ever  since. 
Thus  the  Bible  gives  us  the  method.  To  say  that  it  is 
the  method  of  a  lost  art  is  to  paralyze  your  faith.  It  is 
sheer  atheism  to  assert  that  the  God  who  could  make  men 
of  power  out  of  Moses  and  Peter  in  the  far  past  can  do  so 
no  longer  with  modern  men.  What  God  has  done  God 
can  do.  He  is  doing  it  every  day.  The  son  of  a  Welsh 
miner  and  the  son  of  a  Virginia  country  parson,  both  of 
them  earnest  Christian  men,  are  merging  their  more  than 

170 


GOD'S  METHOD  WITH  MEN 

kingly  power  to  direct  the  world's  destinies  today.  Both 
are  men  of  humble  faith,  confessedly  depending  for  daily 
strength  upon  the  power  which  comes  only  through  prayer. 
If  we  read  our  Bibles  to  as  good  purpose  as  they,  we  too 
shall  keep  open  the  channel  between  the  divine  life  and 
ours,  and  shall  daily  welcome  God's  Spirit  to  dwell  in 
the  holy  of  holies  of  our  lives.  Thereby,  and  only  thus^ 
we  too  may  become  men  who  can  wield  the  power  of  a 
God-filled  life. 

Now  when  they  beheld  the  boldness  of  Peter 
and  John,  and  had  perceived  that  they  were  un- 
learned and  ignorant  men,  they  marvelled;  and 
they  took  knowledge  of  them,  that  they  had  been 
with  Jesus.  .  .  .  But  when  they  had  commanded 
them  to  go  aside  out  of  the  council,  they  conferred 
among  themselves,  saying.  What  shall  we  do  to 
these  men  ?  for  that  indeed  a  notable  miracle  hath 
been  wrought  through  them,  is  manifest  to  all 
that  dwell  in  Jerusalem;  and  we  cannot  deny  it. 
But  that  it  spread  no  further  among  the  people, 
let  us  threaten  them,  that  they  speak  henceforth 
to  no  man  in  this  name.  .  .  .  But  Peter  and  John 
answered  and  said  unto  them.  Whether  it  is  right 
in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken  unto  you  rather 
than  unto  God,  judge  ye:  for  we  cannot  but  speak 
the  things  which  we  saw  and  heard. — Acts  4: 
13-20. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

What  do  you  think  is  meant  by  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible?  Does  the  Bible  anywhere  say  that  God  dictated 
to  the  writers  what  they  should  write?  Would  you  call 
the  book,  or  the  men  back  of  the  book,  inspired? 

171 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

What  makes  a  man  "inspired"?  How  did  Amos  get 
his  burning  message?  Why  do  you  think  he  wrote  out 
his  messages  for  future  generations? 

Why  were  the  prophets  the  rivals  of  the  priests?  What 
can  you  say  of  the  conflict  between  them?  Does  Jesus' 
teaching  remind  you  of  the  priests  or  the  prophets? 

Why  does  the  value  of  the  Bible  books  vary  consider- 
ably? Show  how  God  had  to  depend  upon  "discerning 
seers"  in  each  generation,  to  reveal  his  will  to  the  world. 

Why  is  the  generation  and  use  of  power  so  vital  a  prob- 
lem in  life  ?  How  can  we  capture  "the  high  tension  power 
on  the  high  levels  of  life"? 

Is  it  enough  for  us  to  discover  that  God  spoke  to  men 
long  ago?  Why  not?  If  God  "inspired"  men  then,  why 
can  he  not  do  so  now?  Are  there  really  two  dispensations 
or  only  one? 


172 


CHAPTER  X 

DISCOVERING  IN  PRAYER  OUR  WAY 
TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

The  Naturalness  and  Universality  of  Prayer 

Praise  waiteth  for  thee,  O  God,  in  Zion; 
And  unto  thee  shall  the  vow  be  performed. 
O  thou  that  hearest  prayer. 
Unto  thee  shall  all  flesh  come. 

— Psalm  65 :  i,  2. 

Some  one  has  said  that  if  a  visitor  from  Mars  should 
come  to  inspect  our  human  civilization,  the  most  perplex- 
ing thing  which  would  come  to  his  attention  would  be  to 
see  men,  and  sometimes  great  companies  of  men,  shut 
their  eyes  and  talk  to  a  person  invisible.  If  so,  our  Mars- 
being  would  be  something  very  different  from  a  man,  for, 
in  the  world  of  human  nature,  prayer  is  so  universal  it 
seems  to  be  instinctive.  It  is  not  easy  to  find  a  man  who 
has  never  prayed.  The  real  question  is  not.  Why  should 
men  pray?  but  Why  do  men  pray?  For  in  times  of  dis- 
tress and  danger,  when  our  human  weakness  and  in- 
sufficiency are  painfully  apparent,  all  men  pray.  Sudden 
danger,  an  unexpected  look  into  the  yawning  death  chasm, 
a  miraculous  escape  with  its  fleeting  glimpse  of  eternity 
so  near,  will  wring  prayers  from  the  lips  of  infidels.  There 
is  plenty  of  new  evidence  that  even  the  profanest,  rough- 

173 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

est  soldiers  are  suddenly  made  human  and  devout  in  the 
awful  chaos  of  battle  when  only  God  seems  sane.  After 
a  terrific  battle  in  the  Civil  War  an  army  chaplain  asked 
a  wounded  soldier  if  he  ever  prayed.  His  frank  reply 
was,  "Sometimes.  I  prayed  last  Saturday  night,  when  we 
were  in  that  fight  at  Wagner.  I  guess  everybody  prayed 
then." 

A  great  college  teacher  in  his  textbook  on  Psychology 
says,  "We  hear  in  these  days  of  scientific  enlightenment  a 
great  deal  of  discussion  about  the  efllicacy  of  prayer;  and 
many  reasons  are  given  us  why  we  should  or  should  not 
pray.  But  in  all  this  very  little  is  said  of  the  reason  why 
we  do  pray.  The  reason  is,  we  cannot  help  praying.  It 
seems  probable  that  all  that  'science'  may  do  to  the  con- 
trary, men  will  continue  to  pray  to  the  end  of  time."^ 

Never  to  pray  would  be  something  less  than  human. 
Never  to  be  conscious  of  a  higher  power  to  whom  we  may 
look  up  in  gratitude,  in  upward  striving,  in  hunger  of 
spirit,  in  loneliness  of  soul,  in  longing  for  help,  strength, 
and  protection,  is  to  place  ourselves  on  the  level  of  the 
brutes.  Anthropos,  the  old  Greek  word  for  man,  prob- 
ably means  "the  upward-looking-one."  In  a  double  sense, 
both  physical  and  spiritual,  this  is  man's  highest  distinc- 
tion. 

We  are  the  only  creatures  God  has  made  for  the 
upward  look.  Prayer,  then,  so  universal,  so  instinctive, 
so  characteristic  of  humanity,  is  the  badge  of  our  royal 
birth-right  as  sons  of  the  King.  We  alone  are  on  speak- 
ing terms  with  God. 

"Our  justification  for  calling  prayer  natural,"  says  Dr. 


1  James,  quoted  by  King,  in  "Fundamental  Questions,"  p.  ii. 
174 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

Fosdick,  "may  be  found  in  part  in  the  universality  of  it. 
In  some  form  or  other,  it  is  found  everywhere,  in  all  ages 
and  among  all  peoples.  The  most  discouraging  circum- 
stances do  not  crush  it,  and  theories  of  the  universe 
directly  antagonistic  do  not  prevent  it.  Buddhism,  a  reli- 
gion theoretically  without  a  God,  ought  logically  to  ex- 
clude prayer;  but  in  countries  where  Buddhism  is  domi- 
nant, prayer  is  present.  Confucius,  a  good  deal  of  an 
agnostic,  urged  his  disciples  not  to  have  much  to  do  with 
the  gods;  and  today  Confucius  is  himself  a  god  and  mil- 
lions pray  to  him.  Before  the  tendency  to  pray  all  barriers 
go  down. 

The  traveler  climbs  the  foothills  of  the  Himalayas,  and 
among  the  Khonds  of  North  India  hears  the  prayer :  'O 
Lord,  we  know  not  what  is  good  for  us.  Thou  knowest 
what  it  is.  For  it  we  pray.'  The  archeologist  goes  back 
among  the  Aztec  ruins  and  reads  this  prayer  in  affliction : 
'O  merciful  Lord,  let  this  chastisement  with  which  thou 
hast  visited  us,  give  us  freedom  from  evil  and  from 
folly.'  The  historian  finds  the  Greek  world  typical  of  all 
ancient  civilization  at  least  in  this,  that  prayer  is  every- 
where. .  .  .  One  hears  Plato,  'Every  man  of  sense,  before 
beginning  an  important  work,  will  ask  help  of  the  gods.' 
And  turning  from  Plato's  preaching  to  his  practice,  he 
reads  this  beautiful  petition,  'King  Zeus,  grant  us  the 
good  whether  we  pray  for  it  or  not,  but  evil  keep  from 
us,  though  we  pray  for  it.'  If  today  one  crosses  the  borders 
of  Christianity  into  Mohammedanism,  he  will  find  formal 
prayer  five  times  daily  when  the  muezzin  calls  .  .  .  and 
if  one  looks  to  the  Hebrew  people,  with  what  unanimous 
ascription  do  they  say,  'O  thou  that  hearest  prayer,  unto 
thee  shall  all  flesh  come.'  ...  A  man  is  cutting  himself 

175 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

off  from  one  of  the  elemental   functions  of  human  life 
when  he  denies  in  himself  the  tendency  to  pray.'"' 

Why  Prayer  to  a  Comrade  God  Is  Natural  to  Men 

When  we  ask  the  question  why  prayer  is  so  natural  to 
men,  we  find  the  answer  in  our  natural  relationship  to 
God.  He  is  our  Father.  Our  spirits  are  made  in  his 
likeness;  that  is,  we  can  think  and  feel  and  choose  and 
suffer  and  serve,  as  God  can.  In  a  sense  we  are  a  part 
of  his  infinite  life,  for  "in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being."  We  call  out  to  him  in  prayer  just  because 
we  are  his  children;  we  should  be  very  strange,  unnatural 
children  if  we  did  not.  Because  of  this  close  relationship 
with  God,  he  can  understand  us,  and  we  can  grow  to  un- 
derstand him.  Communion  is  possible  between  us.  In  a 
very  real  sense,  God's  life  is  incomplete  without  the  help 
of  men.  He  developed  the  human  race,  as  the  crown  of 
his  patient  creation,  to  share  his  plans  and  his  labors. 
Some  things  even  God  cannot  do  without  the  help  of  men. 
The  relationship  is  so  close  it  has  even  been  described 
boldly  as  like  that  between  the  tree  and  the  leaf,  which 
gathers  sunshine  for  the  tree  from  which  it  draws  the 
vital  forces  which  give  it  life ;  or  like  the  .bay  and  the 
ocean,  so  vitally  connected  that  twice  a  day  the  bay 
reaches  far  out  to  sea  with  its  beseeching  ebb  tides,  and 
in  response  the  mighty  flood  tides  of  the  ocean  flow  back 
upon  the  bay,  restoring  its  life,  filling  all  its  pools  and 
channels  and  lifting  it  to  higher  levels. 

With  this  intimate  thought  of  our  relationship  to  God, 
prayer  seems  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  us. 

2  "The  Meaning  of  Prayer,"  p.  p. 

176 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

It  is  no  wasting  of  words  upon  the  wind,  staggering 
heavenward  like  dying  sparks  from  the  embers  of  our 
hearthstone  fire.  It  is  the  real  interflow  of  power  from 
our  Father  God  in  response  to  our  human  call.  As 
Dr.  Palmer  suggestively  puts  it:  "If  you  have  grace  to 
receive  it,  God  does  not  hear  prayer — he  feels  it!  The 
yearnings  of  our  souls  reach  directly  into  the  life  of  God. 
The  connection  between  our  lives  and  his  is  as  real  and 
immediate  as  that  between  two  wireless  stations  tuned 
to  receive  each  other's  wireless  messages."^  The  men  to 
whom  prayer  is  most  natural  are  those  who  find  God  to 
be"  a  true  Comrade  of  the  way,  who  feel  his  unobtrusive 
Presence  as  a  constant  fact  in  life.  To  such  men,  prayer 
is  no  long-distance  telephoning  to  a  foreigner  in  an- 
other world,  but  simple,  friendly  conversation  with  the 
nearest  and  most  intimate  of  all  friends. 

He  is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us:  for  in  him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being. — Acts 
17:27b,  28.  • 

The  Tragedy  of  a  God  Who  Is  Deaf 

And  Elijah  said  unto  the  prophets  of  Baal, 
Choose  you  one  bullock  for  yourselves,  and  dress 
it  first;  for  ye  are  many;  and  call  on  the  name  of 
your  god,  but  put  no  fire  under.  And  they  took 
the  bullock  which  was  given  them,  and  they 
dressed  it,  and  called  on  the  name  of  Baal  from 
morning  even  until  noon,  saying,  O  Baal,  hear 
us.  But  there  was  no  voice,  nor  any  that  an- 
swered. And  they  leaped  about  the  altar  which 
was  made.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  noon,  that 
»  "The  Drift  Toward  Religion,"  p.  29. 
177 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Elijah  mocked  them,  and  said,  Cry  aloud;  for  he 
is  a  god :  either  he  is  musing,  or  he  is  gone  aside, 
or  he  is  on  a  journey,  or  peradventure  he  sleepeth 
and  must  be  awaked.  And  they  cried  aloud,  and 
cut  themselves  after  their  manner  with  knives 
and  lances,  till  the  blood  gushed  out  upon  them. 
And  it  was  so,  when  midday  was  past,  that  they 
prophesied  until  the  time  of  the  offering  of  the 
evening  oblation;  but  there  was  neither  voice, 
nor  any  to  answer,  nor  any  that  regarded. — I 
Kings  18:25-29. 

This  story  gives  us  one  of  the  human  tragedies  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  picture  of  these  men  praying  agoniz- 
ingly to  a  god  who  cannot  hear,  is  a  pathetic  scene. 
Urged  on  by  the  taunting,  mocking  words  of  the  prophet 
Elijah,  they  grow  frantic  and  desperate  in  their  endeavors 
to  make  Baal  hear.  But  Baal  is  deaf !  Or  perhaps  he  is 
off  on  a  journey,  or  gone  to  sleep,  or  just  in  a  reverie, 
careless  of  the  cries  of  his  worshipers,  suggests  Elijah. 
Of  what  avail  is  prayer  t^  such  a  god?  This  is  the  pathos 
of  paganism,  while  millions  pour  out  their  souls  before 
stone-deaf  idols,  praying  to  gods  that  do  not  care. 

But  our  Father  God  is  not  deaf.  "He  that  keepeth 
Israel  shall  neither  slumber  nor  sleep."  And  he  is  always 
a  God  who  cares. 

"Speak  to  Him  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit 
with  Spirit  can  meet — 

Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than 
hands  and  feet." 

When  God  was  thought  of  as  a  transcendent  Jehovah, 
enthroned  far  away  in  a  paradise  of  eternal  glory,  but 

178 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

having  little  to  do  with  this  mundane  life  of  ours,  except 
through  occasional  angels,  it  must  have  been  hard  to  be- 
lieve in  prayer.  It  would  be  hard  to  make  such  a  God 
hear,  if  he  was  so  far  away.  I  have  a  good  deal  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  sceptics  of  a  century  ago,  who  could  not 
make  the  cold  logic  of  the  mechanical  creeds  of  those 
days  seem  reasonable.  But  it  is  easier  today  to  believe 
in  the  reasonableness  of  prayer.  God  has  been  brought 
near  to  us.  He  is  a  Comrade  God  who  shares  our  life. 
The  Gospel  of  his  presence  in  his  world  has  vitalized  reli- 
gion. It  interprets  religion  as  the  life  of  God  in  the  hearts 
of  men,  and  it  makes  prayer  the  channel  through  which 
the  divine  life  enters  human  consciousness  and  makes  that 
union  possible. 

What  Prayer  Meant  to  Our  Master 

Of  the  physical  life  and  appearance  of  Jesus  we  know 
little.  Whether  his  health  was  vigorous  and  his  strength 
abundant,  we  know  not;  but  we  do  know  he  became 
fatigued  by  his  nerve-taxing  work  and  was  sometimes  ex- 
hausted at  the  end  of  a  day  of  life-sharing  service.  He 
evidently  did  not  spare  himself.  He  had  a  great  heart, 
and  he  poured  out  his  sympathy  unstintedly.  To  meet 
day  after  day  the  variety  of  human  sufferers  that  came 
to  Jesus  for  help  and  healing  would  have  taxed  the 
nervous  energies  of  any  but  the  marble-hearted.  He  had 
a  way  of  putting  something  of  himself  into  the  life  of  the 
sufferer,  who  went  away  happy  as  well  as  healed,  cured 
in  both  body  and  spirit.  Such  life-sharing,  self-giving, 
always  costs.  It  costs  both  spiritual  energy  and  physical 
vitality.  It  was  evidently  so  in  the  case  of  Jesus.  Once 
we  are  told  he  "perceived  that  the  power  proceeding  from 

179 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

him  had  gone  forth,"  or,  as  the  old  version  gave  it,  "that 
virtue  had  gone  forth  from  him"  (Mark  5:30).  He 
v^as  more  than  physically  tired ;  he  was  nervously  depleted 
and  spiritually  overtaxed.  His  reservoir  of  energy  needed 
recharging  from  the  source  of  spiritual  and  psychic 
vitality.  So  he  prayed.  On  one  occasion,  after  a  day  of 
great  stress  in  the  midst  of  a  clamorous  multitude  that 
sought  his  help,  we  are  told,  "He  withdrew  himself  in 
the  deserts  and  prayed"  (Luke  5:  16).  The  results,  after 
such  experiences  of  communion  with  his  Father,  were 
quite  apparent.  Sometimes  after  spending  the  whole 
night  in  prayer  he  was  more  rested  than  after  a  long 
night's  sleep.  He  had  renewed  his  mental  vitality,  had 
regained  elasticity,  poise,  spiritual  insight,  and  power. 
The  self-renewing  processes  of  prayer  had  revitalized  his 
will  and  strengthened  his  consciousness  of  God's  pres- 
ence and  his  conviction  of  harmony  and  oneness  with  Him. 
Thus  was  restored  his  wonderful  peace,  the  perfect 
equilibrium  of  a  placid  soul,  regardless  of  all  the  surgings 
of  trouble  and  enmity  and  danger  without.  Jesus  could 
never  have  borne  his  great  lonely  burdens  without  this 
restoring  of  his  depleted  energies  and  personal  resources 
through  prayer. 

It  is  significant  that  we  are  especially  told  of  his  pray- 
ing just  before  any  particularly  taxing  or  important  task. 
The  night  before  he  took  the  momentous  step  of  choosing 
his  twelve  apostles,  the  men  whom  he  should  train  to  bear 
the  great  responsibility  of  projecting  his  saving  mission 
into  human  history,  we  are  told: 

He  went  out  into  the  mountain  to  pray;  and  he 
continued  all  night  in  prayer  to  God.    And  when 
it  was  day,  he  called  his  disciples;  and  he  chose 
180 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

from  them  twelve,  whom  also  he  named  apostles. 
— Luke  6:  12,  13. 

It  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  the  recovery  of  spiritual 
power  at  midnight  in  Gethsemane  made  possible  the  tri- 
umphant victory  next  day  on  Calvary. 

And  he  came  out,  and  went,  as  his  custom  was, 
unto  the  mount  of  Olives;  and  the  disciples  also 
followed  him.  And  when  he  was  at  the  place,  he 
said  unto  them,  Pray  that  ye  enter  not  into 
temptation.  And  he  was  parted  from  them  about 
a  stone's  cast;  and  he  kneeled  down  and  prayed, 
saying,  Father,  if  thou  be  willing,  remove  this 
cup  from  me:  nevertheless  not  my  will,  but  thine, 
be  done.  And  there  appeared  unto  him  an  angel 
from  heaven,  strengthening  him.  And  being  in 
an  agony  he  prayed  more  earnestly ;  and  his  sweat 
became  as  it  were  great  drops  of  blood  falling 
down  upon  the  ground.  And  when  he  rose  up 
from  his  prayer,  he  came  unto  the  disciples,  and 
found  them  sleeping  for  sorrow,  and  said  unto 
them,  Why  sleep  ye  ?  rise  and  pray,  that  ye  enter 
not  into  temptation. — Luke  22 :  39-46. 

This  glimpse  of  the  prayer  life  of  the  Master  is  full 
of  significance  as  we  study  it.  Notice  we  are  told  it  was 
his  custom  to  keep  this  prayer-tryst  in  the  quiet  of  the 
night  on  Olivet.  Notice  that  the  process  involved  in  the 
prayer  struggle  was  to  get  his  will  perfectly  in  harmony 
with  the  will  of  God.  Then  conflict  ceased  and  peace  was 
won.  Finally,  notice  the  result  of  his  prayer.  So  greatly 
was  he  strengthened  in  spirit,  as  the  tides  of  God's  power 
flowed  in  upon  his  soul,  it  seemed  as  though  a  divine  mes- 

181 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

senger  must  have  visited  him.  Thus  prayer,  the  prayer- 
habit,  in  the  life  of  the  Master,  was  the  secret  of  his 
great  spiritual  vitality  and  of  his  conquering  life. 

Spiritual  Energy  Released  through  Prayer 

Always  the  example  of  Jesus  is  more  eloquent  than 
his  words.  Seldom  if  ever  do  we  find  him  teaching  the 
duty  of  prayer.  He  just  revealed  to  his  disciples,  un- 
obtrusively, the  privilege  of  prayer.  After  they  had 
watched  him  closely  for  awhile,  and  finally  discovered 
in  his  prayer-life  one  of  the  chief  secrets  of  his  power, 
they  said  to  him,  "Master,  teach  us  to  pray" ;  and,  with 
wonderful  simplicity,  he  ushered  them  into  the  presence 
of  his  Father  and  taught  them  to  talk  and  think  and  feel 
with  the  Comrade  God.  Let  us  try  to  realize  for  our  lives 
what  this  meant  to  them.  Herein  is  the  real  dynamic  of 
the  Christian  life. 

Most  men  know  all  too  well  that  they  are  living  below 
the  level  of  their  possible  best.  Occasionally  we  are  con- 
scious of  unused  energies  within,  imprisoned  by  some  sort 
of  inhibition,  be  it  fear  or  guilt,  reticence,  selfishness, 
laziness,  or  a  half-in-earnest  life.  Somehow  we  are  not 
half  the  men  we  know  we  ought  to  be.  Perhaps  it  is 
just  a  lack  of  moral  courage,  a  "self-suggestion  of  in- 
feriority" which  kills  our  faith  that  God  can  make  of  us 
men  of  real  power.  We  need  to  be  prodded  into  spiritual 
ambition,  ere  we  settle  down  into  a  shameful  contentment 
with  middle-aged  mediocrity. 

Somehow  the  stored  energies  which  are  dammed  up 
in  our  commonplace  life  must  be  released.  Somehow  we 
must  capture  the  high-tension  power  on  the  high  levels 
of   life,   to   make   our   personalities   more   ef^^ctive. .    All 

182 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

about  us  are  the  spiritual  resources  of  the  infinite  God. 
These  personal  forces,  both  human  and  divine,  can  be 
released  through  prayer.  Let  no  one  imagine  for  a 
moment  that  this  is  simply  "pious  talk,"  or  an  unreal  play 
with  empty  words.  The  psychologist,  with  no  taint  of 
the  professional  religionist  about  him,  will  frankly  admit 
that  there  is  vast  potential  power  in  prayer,  whether 
or  not  he  prays  himself.  That  great  teacher  of  teachers, 
William  James,  of  Harvard  University,  in  1907  read 
a  paper  on  "The  Energies  of  Men"  as  the  president's 
address  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
in  which  he  spoke  of  the  positive  power  of  prayer,  and 
paid  a  high  tribute  to  its  reality  and  its  rightful  place  in 
a  rational  life.  In  a  regretful  mood  he  was  speaking  of 
the  difficulty  of  being  both  critically  keen  and  warmly 
religious,  and  he  remarked :  "Few  scientific  men  can  pray, 
I  imagine.  Few  can  carry  on  any  living  commerce  with 
God.  Yet  many  of  us  are  well  aware  how  much  freer  in 
many  directions  and  abler  our  lives  would  he,  were  such 
important  forms  of  energising  not  sealed  up.  There  are 
in  every  one  potential  forms  of  activity  that  actually  are 
shunted  out  from  use,  reservoirs  of  energy  that  are  habitu- 
ally not  tapped."  In  another  place,  this  same  psychologist 
says:  "Prayer  is  religion  in  act;  that  is,  prayer  is  real 
religion.  It  is  no  vain  exercise  of  words,  no  mere  repeti- 
tion of  certain  sacred  formulae,  but  the  very  movement 
itself  of  the  soul,  putting  itself  in  a  personal  relation  of 
contact  with  the  mysterious  power  of  which  it  feels  the 
presence.  The  conviction  that  something  is  genuinely 
transacted  in  the  prayerful  consciousness  is  the  very  core 
of  living  religion."*     After   such  strong  words   from   so 

^    *  "Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"  p.  485. 

183 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

great  a  thinker,  let  no  one  imagine  that  prayer  is  only 
superstition. 

Let  another  distinguished  psychologist,  Dr.  Hocking, 
successor  to  Professor  James  at  Harvard,  give  us  a  vivid 
sentence  explaining  the  process  of  prayer:  "God  (in 
prayer)  has  given  to  the  man  something  of  himself.  By 
just  so  much  as  the  ultimate  meaning  of  things  becomes 
present  to  him,  by  just  so  much  he  is  capable  of  bringing 
new  values  back  to  earth,  as  an  enhanced  quantity  of 
being  in  himself,  as  a  renewed  grasp  of  the  quality  of  the 
goal."^ 

Down  in  the  holy  of  holies  of  your  inner  life,  there 
dwells  w4th  you  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  living  God.  Amid 
the  buried  treasures  of  your  sub-conscious  life  he  dwells, 
with  all  the  forgotten  scenes  and  thoughts  of  all  your  per- 
sonal life,  the  mental  and  spiritual  lore  of  your  past 
experience,  stored  up  for  eternity,  but  buried  now  far 
below  the  surface  of  your  active  thought-life.  Here  are 
your  sources  of  possible  power,  here  the  roots  of  latent, 
unused  energies,  unrealized  psychic  power.  Prayer  is 
the  communion  of  this  your  deepest  self  with  the  God 
who  dwells  within.  Commit  to  God  the  direction  of  these 
unused  resources.  In  confident  faith,  through  the  habit 
of  prayer,  trust  him  to  develop  in  you  these  latent  powers. 
The  result  will  be  a  growing  life.  You  will  outgrow 
yourself.  A  new  efficiency,  a  spiritual  energy  will  develop 
within  you,  which  will  give  you  the  joy  of  conscious 
power  in  a  useful  Christian  life. 

The  growth  of  this  super-self'  through  prayer  begins 
with  a  mental  concentration  which  focuses  the  mind  on 
God.    "As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."    Think- 

'  "The  Meaning  of  God  in  Human  Experience,"  p.  375. 
184 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

ing  intently  of  God  and  his  moral  qualities  and  life  pur- 
poses helps  the  man  who  prays  to  become  more  like  his 
God.  Submission  to  God's  thought  and  God's  will  is  the 
organizing  idea  in  prayer,  under  the  dominance  of  which 
auto-suggestion  produces  great  results.  Auto-suggestion 
is  the  spiritual  process  of  mobilizing  personal  forces 
within  one's  own  life.  What  this  mobilizing  accom- 
plishes, Professor  Coe  describes  in  these  illuminating  sen- 
tences: "Prayer  is  a  way  of  getting  one's  self  together, 
of  mobilizing  and  concentrating  one's  dispersed  capacities, 
of  begetting  the  confidence  that  tends  toward  victory  over 
difficulties.  It  produces  in  a  distracted  mind  the  repose 
that  is  power.  It  freshens  a  mind  deadened  by  routine. 
It  reveals  new  truth,  because  the  mind  is  made  more  elastic 
and  more  capable  of  sustained  attention.  Thus  does  it 
remove  mountains  in  the  individual  and  through  him  in 
the  world  beyond."® 

Prayer,  then,  cannot  be  thought  of  as  a  passive  state 
of  mind.  It  is  intensely  active.  It  is  dynamic.  It  gen- 
erates spiritual  power.  It  releases  the  spiritual  energies 
of  your  life  and  mine.  It  provides  the  channel  by  which 
God's  unwearied  strength  and  untiring  patience  can  enter 
our  souls,  and  make  us  men  of  power.  Yes,  there  is  a 
"Super-Man" !  He  is  the  man,  any  man,  who  has  let  the 
Spirit  of  God  into  his  life,  and  daily  gets  new  power 
through  prayer.  Such  a  man  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  Few 
Americans  started  with  more  meager  resources  or  a  poorer 
chance ;  but  he  faithfully  made  the  most  of  both,  and  then 
trusted  God  for  the  future.  He  believed  strongly  in  the 
Providence  of  God,  and  he  had  great  faith  in  prayer. 
The  result  was,  he  grew;  he  progressively  outgrew  him- 

»  George  A.  Coe,  "The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  p.  315. 
185 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

self.  And  thus  the  boy  born  on  the  clay  floor  of  the 
barest  kind  of  a  mountain  cabin  became  the  most  beloved 
President  of  a  great  nation,  liberator  of  slaves,  savior  of 
the  Union,  respected  by  all  the  world.  The  secret  of  the 
miracle  of  his  growth  he  modestly  reveals  in  these  words, 
"I  have  been  driven  many  times  to  my  knees  by  the  over- 
whelming conviction  that  I  had  nowhere  else  to  go;  my 
own  wisdom  and  that  of  all  around  me  seemed  insufficient 
for  the  day."  Through  the  help  of  God  in  prayer  Lincoln 
became  a  Super-Man. 

I  will  give  thee  thanks  with  my  whole  heart : 
Before  the  gods  will  I  sing  praises  unto  thee. 
I  will  worship  toward  thy  holy  temple, 
And  give  thanks  unto'  thy  name  for  thy  loving- 
kindness  and  for  thy  truth: 
For  thou  hast  magnified  thy  word  above  all  thy 

name. 
In  the  day  that  I  called  thou  answeredst  me, 
Thou  didst  encourage  me  with  strength  in  my 
soul.  —Psalm  138:1-3. 

Religion  as  Friendship  on  Speaking  Terms  zvith  God 

Reduced  to  its  very  simplest  terms,  the  religion  of  the 
Comrade  God  is  friendship.  The  good  people  whom  the 
world  has  strangely  named  "Quakers,"  call  themselves 
*Triends."  There  is  no  better  or  truer  name  for  Chris- 
tians. The  simple  religion  of  Jesus  is  the  practice  of 
friendship.  The  Church,  historically,  has  been  rather 
grandiloquent  about  it,  and  has  added  many  layers  of 
complex  interpretation  and  elaborate  ceremonial.  But 
this  has  been  like  silver-plating  gold — or  gilding  the  per- 

186 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

feet  flute  to  get  a  sweeter  note.  Whatever  other  religions 
may  be,  the  heart  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  friendship. 
We  are  too  prone  to  make  Christianity  the  religion  about 
JcsHS  Christ.  Let  us  rather  think  of  it  as  Jesus'  own 
religion,  the  religion  by  which  he  lived  so  heroically  and 
died  so  triumphantly.  What  we  need,  to  make  us  really 
Christians,  is  the  vision  and  spirit  and  method  of  Jesus 
our  Master.  His  vision,  alluring,  compelling,  was  the 
coming  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  Democracy  of  God,  a 
world  of  friendly  comrades  of  the  Jesus  Way.  His  spirit, 
self-forgetful  but  strangely  powerful,  was  sacrificial  love. 
His  method  was  friendly  sympathy,  expressed  in  service 
and  life-sharing,  while  the  overflowing  life  he  shared 
found  its  eternal  springs  in  God.  His  followers  are  they 
who  have  caught  this  vision,  share  wath  him  this  spirit, 
and  are  living  by  this  method,  whether  they  call  them- 
selves Christians  or  not. 

And  there  arose  also  a  contention  among  them, 
which  of  them  was  accounted  to  be  greatest. — 
Luke  22 :  24. 

But  Jesus  called  them  unto  him,  and  said.  Ye 
know  that  the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it  over 
them,  and  their  great  ones  exercise  authority 
over  them.  Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you:  but 
whosoever  would  become  great  among  you  shall 
be  your  minister;  and  whosoever  would  be  first 
among  you  shall  be  your  servant :  even  as  the  Son 
of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many. 
— Matt.  20 :  25-28. 

This  is  my  commandment,  that  ye  love  one 
another,  even  as  I  have  loved  you.  Greater  love 
hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his 
187 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

life  for  his  friends.  Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do 
the  things  which  I  command  you.  No  longer  do 
I  call  you  servants;  for  the  servant  knoweth  not 
what  his  lord  doeth:  but  I  have  called  you 
friends.  .  .  .  These  things  I  command  you,  that 
ye  may  love  one  another. — John  15: 12-15,  17. 

But  this  religion  of  friendship  finds  its  inspiration  and 
renewal  through  our  mutual  friendship  with  God.  The 
language  of  this  friendship,  its  means  of  intercourse,  is 
prayer.  We  call  it  communion  because  it  mingles  our 
thoughts  with  the  thought  of  God.  This  habit  of  familiar 
prayer  puts  us  on  speaking  terms  with  God.  He  is  no 
longer  a  foreigner  to  our  world  or  a  stranger  to  our  hearts. 
He  becomes,  through  prayer,  our  familiar  friend.  We  un- 
derstand him  better,-and  his  wishes  for  our  lives,  the  more 
we  pray  to  him.  The  peril  of  not  praying  lies  in  this: 
The  time  will  surely  come  when  sudden  crisis  will  over- 
whelm our  hearts,  and  instinctively  we  shall  cry  out  to 
God  in  instant  prayer.  But  how  shall  we  then  pray  to 
him,  if  we  have  not  for  years  been  on  speaking  terms 
with  him?  Yes,  we  may;  but  such  a  prayer,  after  years 
of  silent  neglect,  will  be  quite  different  from  the  prayer 
of  a  constant  friend.  The  great  result  of  the  habit  of 
prayer,  however,  is  not  insurance  against  sudden  emer- 
gencies, but  the  permanent  and  vivid  sense  of  God's  pres- 
ence as  a  vital  factor  in  our  life.  This  idea  of  prayer,  as 
friendship  vocalised^  is  far  above  the  thought  of  mere 
begging.  Its  purpose  is  not  the  getting  of  special  favors ; 
true  friendship's  purpose  never  is.  The  great  gift  of 
God's  friendship,  realized  in  prayer,  is  just  himself,  his 
comforting,  strengthening  Presence.  As  George  Mathe- 
son  prayed,  ''It  is  thee,  and  not  thy  gifts,  I  crave." 

188 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

The  privilege  of  prayer,  from  this  intimate  viewpoint, 
is  beautifully  expressed  in  these  v^ords  of  Sir  Wilfred 
Grenfell,  quoted  by  Dr.  Fosdick:  "In  the  quiet  of  home, 
in  the  heat  of  life  and  strife,  in  the  face  of  death,  the 
privilege  of  speech  with  God  is  inestimable.  I  value  it 
more  because  it  calls  for  nothing  that  the  wayfaring  man, 
though  a  fool,  cannot  give — that  is,  the  simplest  expression 
to  his  simplest  desire.  When  I  can  neither  see,  nor  hear, 
nor  speak,  still  I  can  pray  so  that  God  can  hear.  When 
I  finally  pass  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, 
I  expect  to  pass  through  it  in  conversation  with  him."^ 

He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most 
High 

Shall     abide    under    the     shadow    of    the    Al- 
mighty. .  .  . 

Because  he   hath  set  his  love   upon  me,  there- 
fore will  I  deliver  him: 

I  will  set  him  on  high,  because  he  hath  known 
my  name. 

He  shall  call  upon  me,  and  I  will  answer  him; 

I  will  be  with  him  in  trouble : 

I  will  deliver  him,  and  honor  him. 

With  long  life  will  I  satisfy  him. 

And  show  him  my  salvation. 

— Psalm  91 :  i,  14-16. 

The  World-Reach  of  United  Prayer 

Naturally  our  idea  of  prayer  depends  upon  our  idea  of 
God.  The  outreach  of  prayer  depends  upon  the  scope 
of  God's  presence  and  his  power.    Whatever  may  be  the 

'  "The  Meaning  of  Prayer,"  p.  40. 

.    189 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

virtues  of  telepathy,  the  success  of  wireless  telegraphy  has 
killed  skepticism  about  the  possibility  of  long-distance 
messages.  We  can  now  send  messages  by  wireless,  thou- 
sands of  miles  over  land  and  sea.  It  would  have  been  an 
astounding  miracle  twenty  years  ago.  It  is  now  only  a 
daily  commonplace.  A  wireless  message  sent  around  the 
world  ere  long  would  surprise  no  one.  It  will  depend  upon 
the  construction  of  instruments  with  sufficient  projecting 
power. 

The  projecting  power  of  a  human  prayer  is  the  strength 
of  its  "dominant  desire" — that  is,  the  measure  of  its  faith. 
We  have  no  standard  unit  by  which  to  compare  our  faith, 
except  the  mountains  of  difficulty  it  can  overcome.  In 
these  days  the  obstacles  which  challenge  faith  loom  high 
and  reach  far.  They  compel  us  to  look  to  the  strength 
of  our  "dominant  desire,"  to  seek  dynamic  for  our  faith. 
We  shall  find  this  dynamic  in  our  belief  in  God,  a  Com- 
rade God  who  is  both  near  and  far,  whose  Presence  is  a 
vital  factor  wherever  human  spirits  dwell.  We  may  be 
sure  the  Father  God  goes  with  his  children.  If  the  out- 
reach of  our  prayer  depends  upon  the  outreach  of  our  God 
to  carry  it,  we  may  give  free  scope  to  our  "dominant  de- 
sire"; for  wherever  there  is  need  of  help,  our  God  pre- 
cedes our  prayer. 

Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit? 
Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 
If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there : 
If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  behold,  thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 
And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ; 
Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 
And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 
190 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

If  I  say,  Surely  the  darkness  shall  overwhelm  me, 
And  the  light  about  me  shall  be  night; 
Even  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee, 
But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day: 
The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee. 

— Psalm  139:7-12. 

There  is  great  comfort  here  for  anxious  parents  whose 
boys  are  far  away  in  these  days  of  sundered  families  and 
war-time  separations.  What  would  such  men  and  women 
do  now  without  the  solace  and  strength  of  prayer !  They 
can  only  pray  for  their  boys.  But  they  can  pray.  And 
because  the  God  to  whom  they  pray,  with  his  boundless 
life,  is  both  here  and  there ^  with  the  same  infinite  com- 
passion in  expressing  his  efficient  good  will  there  where 
the  boys  are  in  danger,  as  here  where  he  hears  the  parents' 
prayer,  we  may  pray  with  great  confidence  in  the  world- 
reach  of  our  prayer.  Even  to  those  who  thought  they 
did  not  believe  in  God  or  prayer,  this  sort  of  crisis  has 
forced  new  faith. 

A  letter  from  Scotland  speaks  of  the  change  in  the 
village  infidel,  brought  suddenly  to  such  a  faith,  and  tells 
of  his  coming  to  the  kirk  with  his  great  new  sense  of 
need,  unable  to  keep  back  the  tears,  as  the  pastor  prays 
for  God's  help  for  the  king's  forces  fighting  overseas  in 
France:  "It  was  then  that  my  friend  stifled  a  sob.  There 
was  Something  after  all,  Something  greater  than  cosmic 
forces,  greater  than  law — with  an  eye  to  pity  and  an  arm 
to  save.  There  was  God.  IMy  friend's  son  was  with  the 
famous  regiment  that  was  swaying  to  and  fro,  grappling 
with  destiny.  He  was  helpless  and  there  was  only  God 
to  appeal  to.    There  comes  an  hour  in  life  when  the  heart 

191 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

realizes  that  instinct  is  mightier  far  than  logic.  With 
us  in  the  parish  churches  of  Scotland  the  great  thing  is 
the  sermon.  But  today  it  is  different;  the  great  thing  now 
is  prayer,"^ 

Thus  the  war  is  bringing  to  many  in  these  days  a  new 
sense  of  the  reality  of  intercession.  There  seems  to  be 
constantly  increasing  now  the  volume  of  Christian  inter- 
cession, with  a  world-reach,  and  a  mighty  longing  winging 
its  faith.  It  may  be  that  the  world  in  its  Gethsemane  will 
fathom  new  depths  in  its  experience  of  prayer,  even  as  it 
has  sounded  new  depths  in  its  capacity  for  suffering  and 
for  sacrifice.  At  least  our  faith  is  likely  to  rise  to  this 
emergency,  equal  to  the  challenge  put  upon  it.  The  War- 
Time  League  of  Intercession  is  enlisting  thousands  in 
daily,  united  prayer  to  God,  that,  if  it  be  his  will,  victory 
may  come  to  our  nation  and  its  allies;  that  our  leaders 
may  be  given  wisdom  and  guidance ;  that  our  dear  ones  in 
the  conflict  may  be  preserved  and  protected;  and  that  all 
who  labor,  or  suffer,  or  sacrifice  in  any  service  of  the  great 
cause  may  be  granted  divine  blessing.  Our  complete  faith 
in  the  righteousness  of  our  cause  will  determine  the  faith 
with  which  we  can  join  in  this  united  intercession.  The 
duty  of  Christian  patriots  is  clearly  in  line  with  such  daily 
petition.  And  as,  from  the  twenty-three  nations,  unselfishly 
leagued  together  in  this  vast  struggle  for  the  world's  free- 
dom and  future  peace,  the  volume  of  incessant  prayer  rises 
more  and  more  confidently,  the  spiritual  resources  of  the 
universe  will  more  and  more  he  enlisted  against  our  heart- 
lessly inhuman  foe.  The  moral  forces  of  God's  universe 
will  ultimately  win  this  war,  and  united  prayers  of  inter- 


8  "The  Meaning  of  Prayer,"  p.  4. 

192 


OUR  WAY  TO  GOD  AND  HIS  TO  US 

cession  may  have  a  larger  part  therein  than  sometimes 
we  imagine. 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

Why  do  men  pray?  Did  you  ever  know  a  sane  person 
who  never  had  prayed? 

What  makes  communion  between  God  and  men  possible  ? 
What  sort  of  people  do  you  think  find  prayer  most  natural 
to  them? 

What  do  you  think  prayer  meant  to  Jesus?  What 
special  reasons  for  prayer  did  he  sometimes  have?  To 
what  extent  was  the  prayer  habit  the  secret  of  his  life 
power  ? 

Why  did  his  disciples  ask  him  to  teach  them  to  pray? 
Why  cannot  we  make  prayer  the  real  dynamic  of  our  lives, 
as  Jesus  did?  How  does  prayer  actually  mobilize  the 
forces  of  our  life?    Who  then  is  the  "super-man"? 

What  does  it  mean  to  you  to  be  "on  speaking  terms  with 
God"?  What  is  more  important  in  prayer  than  asking 
for  special  favors? 

How  far  does  the  influence  of  prayer  reach?  How 
does  the  analogy  of  the  wireless  telegraphy  help  you  to  un- 
derstand prayer?  What  do  you  think  of  the  plan  of  the 
W^ar  Time  League  of  Intercession?  How  does  united 
prayer  help  to  marshal  the  moral  forces  of  the  universe? 


193 


CHAPTER  XI 

DISCOVERING  THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD 
WILL  IS  ETERNAL 

How  the  Fire  of  War  Refines  Our  Faith 

It  is  one  of  the  laws  of  suffering  that  it  usually  refines 
the  human  spirit.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  responsibility  to 
sober  the  mind  and  challenge  the  will.  In  the  recent 
years  before  the  war,  much  of  the  world  was  rioting  in 
vaudeville  and  a  feverish  whirl  of  rapid  prosperity,  though 
now  those  tango  days  seem  long  ago,  the  temper  of  life 
is  so  different.  In  spite  of  the  debauch  of  cruelty  in  mid- 
dle Europe,  we  are  living  already  in  a  better  world. 
Selfishness  is  being  rapidly  curtailed.  We  are  learning 
to  regard  the  needs  of  others  and  the  higher  rights  of  the 
state.  The  man  who  selfishly  shuns  Red  Cross,  Red  Tri- 
angle, and  War  Chest  movements,  and  the  woman  who 
hoards  food  and  refuses  to  conserve  wheat  or  sugar  or 
do  anything  to  aid  the  war,  are  denounced  as  "slackers,'' 
a  term  of  supreme  contempt. 

Our  crass  materialism  is  giving  way  to  a  new  idealism, 
and  on  a  nation-wide  scale.  The  rich  man's  pampered 
son  is  no  safer  from  the  draft  than  the  son  of  the  poor 
widow.  All  the  gold  of  Wall  Street  cannot  prevent  his 
serving  in  the  ranks,  and  never  in  history  was  this  true 
before.  The  wonder  and  the  glory  of  it  is  that  there  has 
been  such  general  acquiescence  in  this  righteous  fact.  It 
is  because  the  splendid  ideals  of  our  Christian  President 
dominate  public  opinion.    Under  the  stress  of  noble  ideals 

194 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

in  an  unselfish  war  for  freedom  and  a  better  world,  the 
whole  nation  is  purifying  its  life.  The  war's  sacrifices 
are  burning  out  the  dross.  Its  sudden  and  grave  re- 
sponsibilities are  sobering  our  life  with  a  holy  vision  of 
deep  meanings  and  great  realities.  Many  men  are  seeing 
more  clearly  and  feeling  more  deeply  than  ever  before; 
and  so  are  achieving  a  new-found  faith  in  God  and  the 
deathless  life. 

Wherein  ye  greatly  rejoice,  though  now  for  a 
little  while,  if  need  be,  ye  have  been  put  to  grief 
in  manifold  trials,  that  the  proof  of  your  faith, 
being  more  precious  than  gold  that  perisheth 
though  it  is  proved  by  fire,  may  be  found  unto 
praise  and  glory  and  honor  at  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ:  whom  not  having  seen  ye  love. — 
I  Pet.  1 :  6-8. 

While  some  superficial  Christians  with  poorly  grounded 
faith  have  been  unsettled  by  the  war,  because  they  could 
not  see  the  deeper  meanings  of  it,  many  men  have  seen 
in  it  a  new  vision  for  the  soul.  Like  H.  G.  Wells,  the  war 
has  revealed  to  them  both  the  need  and  the  truth  of  reli- 
gion. In  a  recent  magazine,  such  an  experience  is  told 
by  a  business  man  whose  prosperous,  thoughtless  life  was 
shocked  into  some  straight  thinking,  when  his  idolized 
son  went  to  war.  Before  the  war  he  says  his  ''one- 
syllabled  religion/'  such  as  it  was,  might  have  been  thus 
stated:  "Nothing  can  be  proved  one  way  or  the  other; 
therefore  the  best  way  to  do  is  to  put  the  whole  business 
out  of  mind.  A  man  who  lives  straight  and  does  his  best 
in  this  world  can  take  care  of  himself  here  or  anywhere."^ 

1  Anonymous  writer  in  American  Magazine,  October,  ipi?' 
195 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

But  now  this  crude,  superficial  thinking  does  not  satisfy 
him.  He  says  that  when  he  really  began  to  think,  his 
business  and  everything  else  was  subordinated  to  his 
search  for  light,  until  he  found  it.  He  read  the  works  of 
scientists  and  psychologists,  like  William  James,  John 
Fiske,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge;  and  he  read  his  long-neglected 
Bible.  "I  have  turned  back  to  the  Bible  again,  since  this 
war  began,  turned  back  after  thirty  years  of  wandering." 
It  has  brought  him  out  into  the  clear  light  of  faith. 

Thus  he  states  his  conviction:  "Where  I  lived  before 
this  world,  I  do  not  know;  where  I  shall  live  afterwards 
I  cannot  even  imagine.  But  that  /  shall  live — and  not  as 
a  mere  colorless  spirit  but  as  a  personality,  as  Myself — 
of  that  I  feel  as  sure  today  as  I  feel  sure  of  anything  in 
the  .world.  I  do  not  need  to  dwell  on  the  joy  that  came 
to  me  with  that  conviction.  There  entered  into  my  soul 
such  a  peace,  such  a  calmness  in  the  face  of  any  possible 
contingency,  that  I  felt  myself  an  entirely  different  man. 
The  thought  of  my  boy  was  still  with  me  constantly,  but 
not  as  a  source  of  dread.  It  was  as  though  I  had  entrusted 
him  to  a  great  Friend,  for  the  more  I  thought  about  God, 
the  more  he  appeared  to  me  as  such." 

If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?  .  .  . 
But  as  for  me  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth, 
And  at  last  he  will  stand  up  upon  the  earth : 
And  after  my  skin,  even  this  body,  is  destroyed, 
Then  without  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God ; 
Whom  I,  even  I,  shall  see,  on  my  side. 
And  mine  eyes  shall  behold,  and  not  as  a  stranger. 
—Job  14:14;  19:25-27. 

"I  know  this  now  to  be  a  truth,"  wrote  this  business  man 
196 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

with  his  war-born  faith.  "The  one-syllabled  faith  with 
which  I  have  managed  to  get  through  most  of  my  life, 
a  kind  of  blind  obedience  to  Duty,  the  faith  which  I 
thought  was  strong  enough  even  to  face  my  own  death, 
has  broken  down  at  the  thought  of  the  possible  death  of 
my  boy.  In  its  place  /  have  today  a  larger  and  truer  faith. 
I  wish  that  I  might  have  had  it  earlier;  I  should  have 
been  a  bigger,  more  successful,  happier  man  had  it  come 
to  me  at  the  beginning  of  my  life  instead  of  so  close  to 
the  end.  Yet,  for  all  my  horror  of  .war,  I  cannot  but  feel 
a  certain  gratitude  to  the  war  for  having  led  me  to  it, 
even  now'' 

Many  a  Christian  father  w6uld  doubtless  testify  to  an 
experience  like  Harry  Lauder's.  When  that  big-hearted 
Scotchman  lost  his  only  son  in  battle,  three  years  ago, 
all  that  made  it  possible  to  endure  the  shock  and  go  on 
bravely  with  his  work,  was  his  strong  Scotch  faith.  He 
tells  us,  "While  the  pain  and  grief  had  been  blinding  my 
eyes,  God  had  been  waiting  patiently  for  the  first  sharp 
agony  to  pass  away,  and  when  it  did  he  gently  lifted  the 
veil  from  my  eyes  and  showed  me  the  promised  land  be- 
yond. I  mean  that  suddenly  I  realized  that  I  had  not  seen 
the  last  of  John,  and  that  we  were  sure  to  meet  in  another 
world.  Oh,  that  I  could  convey  to  you  the  healing  balm 
that  that  thought  was  to  my  soul !  I  would  that  I  could 
picture  to  you  the  joy  of  the  thought  that  I  was  to  see  my 
John  again  at  some  future  date,  just  as  if  he  had  simply 
gone  on  a  long  journey,  and  was  waiting  for  his  mother 
and  me  to  come  to  him.  And  because  of  the  great  comfort 
that  my  faith  in  the  future  life  has  brought  me,  I  have 
become  humbly  thankful  that  I  never  mocked  the  name 
of  God  or  cast  him  from  me  at  any  period  of  my  life. 

197 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Because  I  know,  I  am  convinced  that  he  has  helped  me 
to  bear  this  great  blow  by  making  my  conviction  that  this 
life  is  not  the  end,  stronger  than  ever.'" 

How  Jesus  Looked  at  the  Future  Life 

Jesus  looked  clear-eyed  and  confidently  into  the  unseen 
future.  He  seemed  to  be  just  as  sure  of  life  after  death 
as  of  the  next  day's  sunlight.  He  took  immortality  for 
granted,  and  referred  to  it  in  the  most  natural  possible 
way,  in  speaking  to  his  friends. 

Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven. — Matt.  6:9. 

Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your 
reward  in  heaven. — Matt.  5 :  12. 

Lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven, 
where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  consume,  and 
where  thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal: 
for  where  thy  treasure  is,  there  will  thy  heart  be 
also. — Matt.  6:20,  21. 

Rejoice  that  your  names  are  written  in  heaven. 
— Luke  10:  20. 

There  shall  be  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth. — Luke  15:7. 

Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled :  believe  in  God, 
believe  also  in  me.  In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions  [marginal  reading — abiding- 
places]  ;  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you ; 
for  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you. — John  14: 
I,  2. 

Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also. — John  14 :  19. 

That  to  all  whom  thou  hast  given  him,  he 
should  give  eternal  life. — John  17:2. 


'^American  Magazine,  January,  1918. 

198 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

My  sheep  hear  my  voice,  and  I  know  them,  and 
they  follow  me :  and  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life ; 
and  they  shall  never  perish,  and  no  one  shall 
snatch  them  out  of  my  hand. — John  lo :  27,  28. 

We  look  in  vain  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  for  any 
argument  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  future  life.  Like  an 
axiom,  he  simply  and  grandly  assumed  it  as  true.  He 
knew  he  did  not  need  to  argue  with  those  willing  to  be- 
lieve it,  and  it  was  foolish  to  argue  with  those  who  would 
not.  He  evidently  agreed  with  the  wise  man  who  said: 
"The  heart  has  reasons  which  the  reason  does  not  know. 
It  is  the  heart  that  feels  God,  not  the  reason.  The  primary 
truths  are  not  demonstrable,  and  yet  our  knowledge  of 
them  is  none  the  less  certain.  Principles  are  felt,  proposi- 
tions are  proved.  Truths  may  be  above  reason,  and  yet 
not  contrary  to  reason."^  That  is,  it  may  be  impossible 
to  prove  mathematical  axioms,  but  it  is  also  needless.  To 
the  sane,  they  are  self-evident.  Likewise,  to  the  Christ- 
like, the  deathless  life  is  self-evident,  and  so  it  was  to 
Jesus.  He  knew  it  was  true,  for  he  could  feel  it  to  be 
true.  With  his  insight  and  vision,  he  could  see  the  truth 
of  it.  He  wished  his  friends  to  see  this  wonderful  truth 
also,  but  he  knew  the  effective  way  was  not  to  use  cold 
logic,  but  simply  to  reveal  it  to  them:  to  help  them  to  live 
above  the  fogs  of  sin,  where  they  could  see  his  vision. 

So  Jesus  gave  his  friends  his  new  conception  of  life  and 
of  the  value  of  the  human  soul,  and  trusted  them  then  to 
see  the  inevitable  truth  of  immortality.  He  was  the  first 
of  all  great  teachers  to  realize  and  teach  the  priceless 
value  of  a  single  human  life.    His  parable  of  The  One- 

» Pascal,  "Thoughts." 

199 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Hundredth  Sheep  reveals  the  heart  of  God  taking  infinite 
pains  to  save  one  single  wandering  soul.  His  discovery 
of  the  value  of  a  child  was  also  a  new  thing  in  history. 
Many  of  his  parables  reveal  his  conviction  that  this  life 
is  just  the  beginning  of  an  infinite  journey,  the  fitting  for 
an  endless  life.  Should  a  modern  skeptic  with  honest 
doubts  about  the  immortal  life  come  to  Jesus  today  with 
his  questions,  what  would  Jesus  say?  Probably  what  he 
said  to  the  skeptic  Nicodemus,  "You  must  be  born  from 
above."  Learn  to  know  and  trust  your  heavenly  Father. 
Strive  to  live  now  the  heavenly  life  of  invincible  good  will. 
Then  you  will  not  be  troubled  about  the  future.  The 
perspective  of  life  will  deepen  before  you,  and  the  vision 
of  the  deathless  life  will  grow  within  your  soul.  You 
will  come  to  feel  it  must  be  true. 

The  Religion  of  the  New  Death 

A  British  army  officer  is  quoted  as  saying,  "I  have  never 
seen  a  single  man  in  the  trenches  who  questioned  im- 
mortality." Similar  testimony  has  come  from  many 
sources.  In  some  wonderful  way  our  soldier  boys  have 
come  to  feel  this  great  truth  as  many  of  them  never  had 
before.  Danger  is  their  daily  comrade.  Again  and 
again  they  have  looked  into  the  face  of  Death  until  it 
has  given  them  the  vision  of  Life.  "I  spent  many  days," 
says  our  friend  Harry  Lauder,  "in  the  trenches,  in  the  rest 
camps,  the  hospitals,  and  in  the  surrounding  towns  ,  .  . 
but  the  one  thing  I  came  away  with,  above  all  other  im- 
pressions, was  the  conviction  that  every  single  one  of  these 
men,  no  matter  what  manner  of  lives  they  had  lived  be- 
fore, now  possesses  a  calm,  clear  conviction  that  if  they 

200 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

fall  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  they  will  pass  into  the  life 
beyond."  "You  shall  not  die,"  said  a  Scotch  colonel  to 
his  regiment  the  night  before  the  terrible  German  offen- 
sive last  ]\Iarch.  "If  you  fall  tomorrow  in  battle,  you  will 
not  die,  you  zvill  only  step  out  into  the  deathless  life!" 
This  spirit  of  faith  in  God's  future  seems  to  have  been 
wonderfully  contagious.  With  such  a  spirit  leading  them, 
no  wonder  they  "greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer."  The 
writer  of  an  inspiring  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
(May,  1918)  asserts,  "That  multitudes  of  soldiers  have 
met  their  end  not  only  with  serenity,  but  with  a  high- 
hearted gayety,  is  a  fact  of  overwhelming  evidence.  This 
is  the  highest  proof  a  man  can  give  of  his  certainty  that 
soul  is  more  enduring  than  body." 

And  so  we  see  how  the  wholesale  martyrdom  of  brave 
young  soldiers  of  freedom  has  refined  the  faith  of  their 
comrades  like  gold  tried  in  the  fire.  They  worship  cour- 
age. They  pray  to  be  able  to  die  without  fear.  They  long 
to  deserve  the  war  crosses  they  win.  They  finally  see 
the  vision  splendid,  that  the  heroic  life  is  too  glorious  a 
thing  to  die;  no  bullet  can  stop  it,  no  shrapnel  can  end 
it !  On  and  on  it  must  go  forever,  into  the  endless  vista 
of  God !  Their  brave  comrades  who  have  "Gone  West" 
have  but  passed  through  the  portal  of  the  Great  Adven- 
ture. They  have  not  died.  Xor  have  they  even  gone. 
These  fervent  believers  in  "the  New  Death"  are  sure  that 
the  heroic  spirits  of  their  comrades  still  hover  about  the 
familiar  camps  and  trenches  to  add  their  unseen  aid  to  the 
might  of  the  Great  Cause.  "The  New  Death  conceives 
an  interrelated  universe  in  which  spirits  still  in  the  flesh 
and  spirits  freed  from  it  may  both  be  associated  in  some 
mystic  effort  toward  the  future.    'Carry  on'  is  the  soldier's 

201 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

answer  to  the  enigma  of  death.  .  .  .  That  our  dead  are 
alive  and  the  same  whom  we  loved,  and  that  they  joyously 
continue  the  upward  march,  is  the  dominating  faith  of  the 
New  Death."' 

When  we  recall  that  our  Christianity  was  originally 
launched  by  the  triumphant  challenge  of  a  young  man's 
death,  or  rather  his  victory  over  death,  we  wonder  if  this 
strong  conviction  of  our  knights  of  the  new  chivalry  is 
not  going  to  give  Christianity  itself  not  only  a  new  lease 
of  life,  but  actually  a  new  vision  of  deathless  life.  "He 
still  lives!"  was  the  glad  shout  of  the  overjoyed  comrades 
of  the  Christ.  "They  still  live !"  is  the  challenging  cry 
of  our  soldiers  today,  as  they  feel,  with  a  subtle  faith- 
sense,  their  dead  comrades  still  with  them.  This  glorious 
taunting  of  the  Great  Enemy  with  his  utter  weakness  to 
harm  the  human  spirit,  when  he  merely  slays  the  human 
body,  is  a  splendid  assertion  of  the  Christian  faith.  After 
all,  there  is  no  death;  there  is  only  transition;  and  the 
heightened  intuitions  of  the  soldiers  have  revealed  to 
them  the  heavenly  vision. 

"That's  why  we  take  such  chances,"  said  one  of  these 
young  heroes  to  Harry  Lauder.  "Do  you  think  for  a 
moment  that  if  we  thought  that  life  held  nothing  for  us 
but  the  earthly  body  we  possess,  we  would  fight  with  such 
confidence  and  eagerness?  We  would  not  be  able  to, 
because  we  would  be  doing  everything  in  our  power  to 
preserve  this  life  of  ours.  But  seeing  men  die  as  I  have 
seen  them,  I  know  better  than  to  disbelieve  in  a  future 
life.  And  because  we  'have  no  fear  of  death,  every  one 
of  us  flings  himself  over  the  bags  and  on  to  the  Huns 
with  a  fierce,  almost  savage  joy.     And  because  that  spirit 

^Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  191 8. 

202 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

is  sweeping  among  our  men,  we  are  going  to  win  this 
war.  We  don't  believe  it  possible  that  men  who  go  into 
battle,  knowing  that  they  are  fighting  for  a  righteous 
cause,  and  unafraid  of  death,  can  be  driven  back  forever. 
Some  day,  at  some  point,  the  enemy  must  weaken,  and 
then  we  will  sweep  over  the  tops  and  nothing  will  hold 
us  back.  We  know  it  just  as  surely  as  we  know  the  sun 
will  rise  tomorrow."^ 

But  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  in- 
corruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  im- 
mortality, then  shall  come  to  pass  the  saying  that 
is  written.  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory.  O 
death,  where  is  thy  victory?  O  death,  where  is 
thy  sting?  The  sting  of  death  is  sin;  and  the 
power  of  sin  is  the  law:  but  thanks  be  to  God, 
who  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.— I  Cor.  15:54-57. 

A  Heaven  of  Progress  and  Service 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  traditional  ideas  which 
the  churches  used  to  teach  about  heaven  were  hardly 
masculine.  Or  rather,  they  have  not  appealed  to  energetic 
modern  men.  As  one  man  frankly  puts  it,  "Even  from 
early  boyhood,  I  have  found  my  chief  pleasure  in  good 
hard  work.  To  be  condemned  to  eternal  idleness  in  a 
place  where  everything  was  perfect — no  battles  to  fight, 
no  faulty  conditions  to  correct,  no  evils  to  overcome — 
the  thought  was  unendurable.  I  had  rejected  this  ances- 
tral heaven  even  before  my  college  days ;  ai«i  having 
nothing  better  to  put  in  its  place,  I  ceased  to  think  about 

^American  Magazine,  January,  1918. 

203 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

heaven  at  all."  There's  a  flat  challenge  for  us  Christians ! 
We  must  give  him  "something  better  to  put  in  its  place." 
Many  modern  preachers  are  doing  it. 

The  Bible,  of  course,  does  not  contain  a  map  or  a  blue- 
print of  heaven.  With  subtle  wisdom  Jesus  apparently 
refrained  from  giving  his  opinions  in  detail  on  the  subject, 
and  no  one  else  knew  very  much  about  it.  It  is  well  for 
us  as  it  is.  "If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you," 
is  the  assuring  word  of  the  Master  that  we  need  not 
know  more  at  present  about  the  future.  The  beautiful 
imagery  of  the  book  of  Revelation  is,  of  course,  not  to 
be  taken  literally.  It  should  be  understood  as  a  series  of 
visions,  in  describing  which  the  author  uses  highly  figura- 
tive language.  Some  of  his  passages  are  marvelously 
beautiful  and  thrilling  in  their  spiritual  power,  but  in 
attempting  to  describe  the  world  of  the  spirit  in  physical 
and  material  terms  of  this  world  of  the  flesh  and  the 
senses,  he  attempts  the  impossible.  But  of  this  we  may 
be  certain:  lesits  never  looked  forward  to  a  heaven  of 
eternal  idleness!  The  Christ  who  said,  "My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  would  never  be  content 
"'just  to  do  nothing  forever  and  ever."  His  heaven  must 
be  a  life  of  service,  a  life  of  opportunity  and  responsibility ; 
and  with  this  we  find  even  the  author  of  Revelation  quite 
in  agreement : 

And  there  shall  be  no  curse  any  more :  and 
the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  there- 
in :  and  his  servants  shall  serve  him. — Rev.  22 :  3. 

And  he  that  overcometh,  and  he  that  keepeth 
my  works  unto  the  end,  to  him  will  I  give  author- 
ity over  the  nations  .  .  .  and  I  will  give  him  the 
morning  star. — Rev.  2  :  26,  28. 
204 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

"We  look  forward  to  the  future  life,"  says  Dr.  Edward 
I.  Bosworth,  "not  as  personal  bliss  conferred  as  a  reward 
of  merit,  not  to  unalloyed  happiness,  but  rather  to  a  new 
and  larger  opportunity  to  work  with  others  at  great  enter- 
prises for  the  common  good — enterprises  which  will  pre- 
sent many  perplexing  problems  and  lay  heavy  responsi- 
bilities upon  us.  The  truly  Christian  man,  the  man  fit 
for  immortality,  has  long  found  his  chief  satisfaction  in 
working  with  other  men  in  all  possible  ways  and  at  any 
cost  for  the  common  good.  .  .  .  Any  normal  healthy  soul 
must  resent  the  idea  that  his  opportunity  to  make  con- 
tribution to  the  common  good  should  end  with  death. "^ 

In  some  of  his  parables  Jesus  shows  most  clearly  that 
he  believed  faithfulness  in  this  world  would  be  rewarded, 
not  by  a  sinecure  of  laziness  in  the  future  life,  but  a 
chance  for  even  harder  work  of  graver  responsibility. 
"Surely  the  best  reward  of  work  well  done  is  more  work 
to  do,"  says  President  King. 

And  he  that  received  the  five  talents  came  and 
brought  other  five  talents,  saying.  Lord,  thou  de- 
liveredst  unto  me  five  talents:  lo,  I  have  gained 
other  five  talents.  His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant:  thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  set  thee  over 
many  things;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord. 
— Matt.  25:  20,  21. 

Then  shall  the  King  say  unto  them  on  his  right 
hand.  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world:  for  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me  to 


0  "The  Christian  Witness  in  War,"  p.  12. 
205 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

eat;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was 
a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in;  naked,  and  ye 
clothed  me ;  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me ;  I  was 
in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me. — Matt.  25  :  34-36. 

Though  belief  in  a  personal  immortality  is  vitally  essen- 
tial to  one's  Christian  faith,  it  is  doubtful  if,  in  these 
strenuous  days  of  world  need,  and  of  emphasis  upon  the 
social  gospel,  we  shall  find  our  most  important  motives  in 
worrying,  like  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  over  our  personal 
opportunities  and  prerogatives  in  heaven.  Let  us  content 
ourselves  with  this :  Eternal  life  must  mean  eternal  oppor- 
tunity for  growth  and  progress.  Progress  is  the  will  of 
God  and  growth  is  the  law  of  life.  A  future  life  of  per- 
sonal relations  will  offer  every  opportunity  for  friendly 
help  and  mutual  service  which  friends  could  need  or 
friendship  delight  to  render. 

The  Triumph  of  a  Father's  Faith 

Jesus  Christ  taught  the  world  the  lasting  lesson  of  the 
infinite  value  of  a  human  life.  Patriotism  teaches  us  that 
it  is  a  glorious  sacrifice  to  die  for  one's  country,  and  that 
the  life  of  the  nation  is  vastly  more  precious  than  the 
mortal  life  of  a  single  citizen.  Radical  socialists  and  some 
radical  Christians  claim  that  these  two  statements  are  in- 
consistent. They  assert  that  one's  country  is  not  worth 
dying  for,  that  internationalism  is  the  great  goal,  and 
that  the  loss  of  a  single  human  life  would  be  too  great 
a  sacrifice  for  a  country  to  deserve.  The  crux  of  this 
unpatriotic  fallacy  is  very  simple.  Christians  who  be- 
lieve   in    immortality    should    quickly    see    it.      Atheistic 

206 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

socialists  can  hardly  be  expected  to.  It  lies  in  the  simple 
fact  that  physical  death  does  not  annihilate  the  soul,  and 
that  the  infinite  preciousness  of  human  life,  which  Jesus 
taught,  does  not  refer  at  all  to  the  mortal  life  of  the  human 
body.  To  the  short-sighted  man  who  cannot  see  light 
beyond  this  brief  three-score  years  and  ten,  a  mortal  life- 
time must  seem  all-important,  for  he  fancies  that  that  is 
all  there  is  of  life.  Atheists  must  make  miserable  soldiers, 
they  have  to  be  so  cowardly  in  guarding  their  little  span 
of  time.  It  is  the  man  who  has  eternity  in  his  heart  who 
can  be  generous  with  his  mortal  years.  It  is  not  mortality, 
but  immortality,  which  has  infinite  value.  "A  man  must 
live"  is  the  stingy  defense  of  the  moral  coward;  but  the 
hero  obeys  his  conscience  which  tells  him  he  must  he 
willing  to  die  for  his  Cause.  Jesus  taught  the  world  this 
both  by  his  glorious  example  and  his  perfectly  plain 
precept.  To  his  friend  who  tempted  him  to  think  he  need 
not  sacrifice  his  life  to  save  the  world,  he  retorted: 

Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan;  for  thou  mindest 
not  the  things  of  God,  but  the  things  of  men. 
And  he  called  unto  him  the  multitude  with  his 
disciples,  and  said  unto  them.  If  any  man  would 
come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take 
up  his  cross,  and  follow  me.  For  whosoever 
would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  whosoever 
shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's 
shall  save  it. — ^Mark  8 :  33-35. 

In  the  light  of  this  teaching  we  see  the  unpatriotic 
fallacy  of  Markham's  lines,  "I  Did  Not  Raise  My  Boy 
To  Be  a  Soldier,"  which  ex-President  Roosevelt  asserts 
is  as  bad  as,  "I  Did  Not  Raise  My  Girl  To  Be  a  Mother !" 

207 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

"O  mothers,  will  you  longer  give  your  sons 
To  feed  the  awful  hunger  of  the  guns? 
What  is  the  worth  of  all  these  battle  drums. 
If  from  the  field  the  loved  one  never  comes? 
What  all  these  loud  hosannas  to  the  brave, 
If  all  your  share  is  some  forgotten  grave  ?" 

We  may  grant  the  Tightness  of  this  appeal  in  the  case 
of  an  unrighteous  war  for  an  unworthy  cause;  and  still 
feel  its  low  idealism  and  sheer  selfishness  in  a  crisis  like 
the  present,  when  everything  in  the  world  worth  living 
for  is  at  stake.  In  such  a  holy  cause,  even  Mr.  Mark- 
ham,  with  his  instinctive  loyalty  to  humanity,  should  see 
something  worth  dying  for.  The  best  answer  to  his  selfish 
lines  quoted  above  is  given  us  by  Dr.  James  L.  Hughes, 
who  for  over  forty  years  was  Superintendent  of  Schools 
in  Toronto,  Canada,  and  whose  son,  whom  he  gave  to 
the  cause  of  freedom,  was  slain  in  battle  in  Belgium. 
This  stinging  reply  to  Markham  shows  us  the  triumph 
of  a  father's  faith. 

"God  gave  my  son  in  trust  to  me; 
Christ  died  for  him,  and  he  should  be 
A  man  for  Christ.    He  is  his  own, 
And  God's  and  man's,  not  mine  alone. 
He  was  not  mine  to  'give.'    He  gave 
Himself  that  he  might  help  to  save 
All  that  a  Christian  should  revere, 
All  that  enlightened  men  hold  dear. 

*To  feed  the  guns  !'    Ah,  torpid  soul ! 
Awake,  and  see  life  as  a  whole. 
When  freedom,  honor,  justice,  right 
Were  threatened  by  the  despot's  might, 
208 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

With  heart  aflame  and  soul  aHght, 
He  bravely  went  for  God  to  fight 
Against  base  savages  whose  pride 
The  laws  of  God  and  man  defied. 

^Forgotten  grave  !'   This  selfish  plea 
Awakes  no  deep  response  in  me, 
For,  though  his  grave  I  may  not  see, 
My  boy  will  ne'er  forgotten  be. 
My  real  son  can  never  die; 
'Tis  but  his  body  that  may  lie 
In  foreign  land,  and  I  shall  keep 
Remembrance  fond,  forever,  deep 
Within  my  heart  of  my  true  son, 
Because  of  triumphs  that  he  won. 
It  matters  not  where  anyone 
May  lie  and  sleep  when  work  is  done. 

It  matters  not  where  some  men  live; 

If  my  dear  son  his  life  must  give, 

Hosannas  I  will  sing  for  him 

E'en  though  my  eyes  with  tears  be  dim ; 

And  when  the  war  is  over,  when 

His  gallant  comrades  come  again, 

I'll  cheer  them  as  they're  marching  by, 

Rejoicing  that  they  did  not  die. 

And  when  his  vacant  place  I  see, 

My  heart  will  bound  with  joy  that  he 

Was  mine  so  long — my  fair  young  son. 

And  cheer  for  him  whose  work  is  done."^ 

Getting  Fit  for  Immortality 
Life  in  the  training  camps  of  our  new  National  Army  is 

7  Quoted  from  The  Manufacturers'  Record. 
209 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

teaching  us  what  it  means  to  live  the  hundred  per  cent 
life.  Nondescript  squads  of  heterogeneous  "butchers  and 
bakers  and  candlestick  makers"  are  fed  into  the  hopper 
at  the  receiving  station,  and  in  a  few  strenuous  weeks  they 
become  soldierly  men.  Something  works  a  miracle  of 
transformation.  The  uniform  helps  somewhat;  but  the 
discipline  far  more.  The  spirit  of  utter  loyalty,  instant 
obedience,  absolute  devotion  to  the  cause,  helps  much. 
Idealism  has  displaced  selfishness.  A  sacrificial  but 
rational  regime  of  life  has  straightened  out  the  kinks  and 
crooks,  the  slouchiness  and  awkwardness,  the  obesity  or 
lankiness  of  the  raw  recruit  and  toned  him  up  physically 
to  a  point  of  marked  efficiency.    We  say  he  is  physically 

nt. 

We  are  also  proud  of  the  fact,  that,  under  the  impul- 
sion of  a  Christian  public  opinion  and  the  leadership  of 
•Christian  men  in  both  Army  and  Navy,  from  the  White 
House  down,  the  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  welfare  of 
our  splendid  young  soldiers  is  guarded  with  the  same 
thoroughness  and  care.  We  are  doing  our  best  to  make 
and  keep  them  fit. 

The  same  sensible  philosophy  of  life  is  very  naturally 
applied  to  the  wider  horizons.  Middle  life  has  a  habit  of 
sagging.  If  adolescence  is  the  time  of  highest  idealism, 
it  is  a  shame  for  maturity  to  confess  it.  If  physical  fitness 
declines  at  thirty-five  and  health  at  forty-five,  it  is  a  physi- 
cal disgrace  to  the  race.  If  mental  keenness  and  alertness 
and  efficiency  pass  their  climax  at  forty,  it  is  pathetic  to 
see.  And  then  we  wonder  at  the  early  "dead-line"  in  both 
business  and  professional  careers !  Religion  has  a  strong 
message  for  men,  to  denounce  the  vulgarity  and  waste 
and  sin  of  an  early  decadence,  and  to  urge  us  all  to  keep 

210 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

at  for  efficient  service  in  this  world  as  long  as  the  Lord 
will  let  us. 

But  life  is  a  splendid  unity.  The  habit  of  personal 
fitness  reaps  its  real  harvest  in  the  future  life,  for  it 
leaves  its  marks  of  efficiency  upon  the  soul  itself.  It 
surely  tells  its  story  in  the  facial  expression,  but  it  also 
moulds  the  character.  We  cannot  avoid  the  fact  that  our 
training,  all  our  world  education  and  experience,  is  for 
the  endless  life.  We  must  get  fit  for  immortality.  If  the 
life  of  the  human  soul  is  eternal,  it  is  the  height  of  folly 
to  live  a  butterfly  life,  just  for  today.  Religion  is  far- 
sightedness. Faith  is  perspective.  Spiritual  culture  is 
common  sense  for  the  soul,  which  needs  careful  training 
and  nurture  for  its  long,  long  road,  infinitely  more  than 
the  body  needs  it  for  its  short  journey.  We  must  be 
true  to  ourselves,  body  and  soul,  by  keeping  fit;  not  for 
selfish  satisfactions,  but  for  efficient  usefulness  and  the 
joy  of  service. 

Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give 
thee  the  crown  of  life.  ...  He  that  overcometh 
shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death. — Rev.  2: 
10,  II. 

That  the  man  of  God  may  be  complete,  fur- 
nished completely  unto  every  good  work — II  Tim. 

Put  on  the  new  man,  that  after  God  hath  been 
created  in  righteousness  and  holiness  of  truth. — 
Eph.  4 :  24. 

Till  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto 
a  fullgrown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fulness  of  Christ. — Eph.  4:  13. 
211 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

The  Daily  Practice  of  the  Deathless  Life 

Somewhere  Dr.  Washington  Gladden  says,  "If  you  Hve 
the  sort  of  life  that  ought  to  perish,  it  will  be  hard  for 
you  to  believe  in  immortality ;  but  live  the  kind  of  life  that 
ought  to  last,  and  belief  in  the  endless  life  will  not  be 
difficult."  The  great  adjective  eternal  seems  to  be  qualita- 
tive as  well  as  quantitative.  It  refers  not  merely  to  time, 
but  to  the  quality  and  nature  of  life.  Otherwise,  it  would 
suggest  mere  lengthiness ;  and  lengthy  means  long  without 
being  interesting.  It  is  the  glorious  content  which  im- 
mortality may  hold  that  allures  us,  not  simply  its  in- 
terminable length.  That  content  we  must  put  in  ourselves, 
with  God's  help.  Some  folks'  religious  aim  seems  to  be 
the  meager  one  of  ultimately  just  reaching  heaven.  Their 
spiritual  ambition  is  satisfied  if  they  barely  get  across  the 
Jordan  with  fare  enough  to  pay  the  ferryman.  To  enter 
heaven  thus  morally  and  spiritually  bankrupt  would  be 
the  last  possible  calamity.  It  would  amount  to  hell  it- 
self. When  a  man  awakes  to  the  fact  that  he  must  begin 
to  make  his  heaven  now,  and  that  eternal  life  begins 
here  and  now,  if  ever,  in  the  quality  of  one's  present  liv- 
ing, he  makes  a  great  discovery.  "You  can  never  enter 
heaven,  until  heaven  enters  you."  The  people  whose 
faith  in  the  endless  life  is  the  strongest  are  those  who  get 
the  habit  of  immortality.  They  are  practicing  it  daily 
with  the  help  of  Christ.  It  is  the  life  of  invincible  good 
will,  which  even  death  cannot  conquer. 

These  things  have  I  written  unto  you,  that  ye 
may  know  that  ye  have  eternal  life,  even  unto  you 
that  believe  on  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God. — I 
John  5:13. 

212 


THE  LIFE  OF  GOOD  WILL  ETERNAL 

Dr.  Edward  I.  Bosworth  says  to  our  soldiers,  "The  man 
who  is  bearing  his  Christian  witness  in  war  by  the  daily 
practice  of  immortality  has  seen  reason  for  expecting  that 
this  instinctive  demand  of  his  soul  will  be  met.  If  death 
comes  today  he  will  not  be  without  rewarding  occupation 
tomorrow.  .  .  .  We  see  in  the  future  life  a  challenge  to 
do  our  utmost  in  the  day's  work  now.  .  .  .  Our  chance  to 
take  an  immortal  man's  part  in  the  great  unselfish  enter- 
prise of  the  life  to  come  depends  upon  having  learned  to 
take  a  man's  part  in  all  such  enterprises  here  and  now. 
The  man  who  has  flinched  from  his  chance  to  work  for 
the  common  good  here,  whether  in  war  or  peace,  has  had 
that  fact  registered  in  his  own  personality  by  the  very 
laws  of  his  own  being.  He  steps  through  the  gateway 
of  death  into  the  Beyond,  labeled  an  unfit  man  who  has 
not  yet  passed  his  apprenticeship  and  who  cannot  yet  take 
his  place  with  the  strong  friendly  workmen  in  the  larger 
civilization  of  the  vast  unseen  world."^ 

It  gives  a  new  grandeur  to  the  life  of  today  when  we 
see  in  it  such  eternal  meanings.  The  man  who  feels  end- 
less life  within  him  and  shows  by  his  daily  practice  of 
good  will  that  eternity  is  in  his  heart,  treads  this  earth  like 
the  son  of  a  King.  His  heart  is  not  feverishly  selfish 
in  exploiting  the  present  nor  anxiously  burdened  for  fear 
of  the  future.  He  has  such  confidence  in  the  life  of 
good  will  that  he  believes  it  endless;  so  he  tries  to  live 
as  if  life  were  eternal,  and  then  trusts  God  to  make  it 
true.  "Death  is  a  great  adventure,"  says  Dr.  Fosdick, 
"but  none  need  go  unconvinced  that  there  is  an  issue  to 
it.  The  man  of  faith  may  face  it  as  Columbus  faced  his 
first  voyage  from  the  shores  of  Spain.     What  lies  across 

8  "The  Christian  Witness  in  War,"  p.  13. 
213 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

the  sea,  he  cannot  tell ;  his  special  expectations  all  may  be 
mistaken;  but  his  insight  into  the  clear  meanings  of  pres- 
ent facts  may  persuade  him  beyond  doubt  that  the  sea 
has  another  shore."^ 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

How  is  war  sacrifice  actually  making  the  world  better? 
What  effect  has  the  war  had  upon  your  faith? 

What  was  Jesus'  attitude  toward  the  future  life?  Why 
didn't  he  argue  about  it?  How  does  the  quality  of  our 
present  living  affect  our  belief  in  the  future? 

What  is  there  about  the  war  experience  which  makes 
the  future  life  so  real  to  the  soldiers?  What  do  you  think 
of  ''the  religion  of  the  new  death"?  Why  do  the  soldiers 
feel  that  their  heroic  comrades  have  conquered  death? 
Are  believers  in  immortality  braver  fighters  than  atheists 
are? 

W^hat  is  a  modern  man's  idea  of  heaven  ?  Does  "eternal 
rest''  have  any  attraction  for  you?  Why  is  the  possibility 
of  progress  necessary  for  us  in  the  future  life?  Why 
are  you  sure  it  will  be  a  life  of  service?  What  does  the 
parable  of  the  talents  indicate  on  this  point? 

How  can  middle-aged  men  "keep  fit"?  What  causes 
the  professional  "dead-line"?  How  does  personal  effi- 
ciency reap  its  harvest  in  the  future  life?  How  can  we 
"get  fit"  for  immortality?  Show  how  religion  is  spiritual 
far-sightedness. 

Is  it  a  high  enough  aim  to  try  to  "just  get  into  heaven"? 
In  what  sense  is  it  true  that  heaven  must  begin  now  in 
the  quality  of  our  present  living?  What  do  we  mean  by 
"the  daily  practice  of  immortality"? 

8  "The  Assurance  of  Immortality,",  p.  ii6. 


214 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY 
FAITH 

Reducing  Religion  to  Its  Prime  Factors 

The  religion  of  Jesus  was  as  simple  as  sunlight.  The 
religion  of  the  centuries  has  been  more  and  more  complex. 
Men  who  talk  the  language  of  theology  are  all  too  likely 
to  complicate  Jesus'  religion  with  their  own  ideas  about  it; 
so  historic  Christianity  becomes  heavy  with  dogma  and 
very  confusing.  Elaborate  creedal  theories,  fantastic 
forms  of  worship  and  even  weird  mystical  experiences 
have  so  complicated  the  religion  of  Jesus  that  Peter  and 
John  would  hardly  recognize  it.  Many  men  in  our  own 
age  have  reacted  against  this  overgrown  faith  and  have 
been  pleading  for  the  simple  religion  of  our  Lord.  When 
confronted  and  almost  smothered  by  the  elaborate  religion 
of  the  Pharisees,  Jesus,  with  keen  analysis,  cut  through 
the  non-essentials  and  reduced  religion  to  its  prime  factors. 
He  set  up  as  a  standard  of  simplicity  the  simple  sincere 
trust  of  a  child,  and  made  childlikeness  the  test  of  mem- 
bership in  his  kingdom: 

In  that  hour  came  the  disciples  unto  Jesus,  say- 
ing. Who  then  is  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven?  And  he  called  to  him  a  little  child,  and 
set  him  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said,  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  Except  ye  turn,  and  become  as  little 
215 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

children,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  Whosoever  therefore  shall  hum- 
ble himself  as  this  little  child,  the  same  is  the 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. — Matt.  i8: 
1-4. 

A  simple  faith  v^as  always  beautiful,  but  it  was  never 
more  needed  than  today.  Our  creeds  and  forms  and 
rituals  must  become  simple  again  or  lose  their  grip  on 
men.  Our  military  age  has  discovered  waste  to  be  a 
crime.  To  harbor  the  needless  and  the  useless  is  now  a 
breach  of  patriotism.  The  soldier  must  carry  no  super- 
fluous baggage,  even  in  his  faith.  With  the  keen  vision 
of  wits  sharpened  by  crises,  the  soldier  pierces  through 
the  rubbish  of  cant  and  formal  non-essentials.  He  finds 
the  few  great  essentials,  and  throws  all  the  rest  into  the 
discard  as  not  worth  while,  at  least  upon  the  march. 
For  many  a  soldier  there  comes  a  time  when,  in  his  great 
loneliness,  nothing  much  counts  but  God  and  Christ  and 
immortality;  but  these  great  certainties  grip  him  with 
the  strength  and  joy  of  a  new  discovery.  He  has  reduced 
religion  to  its  prime  factors.  He  has  analyzed  religion 
and  found  just  a  few  splendid  irreducible  elements  in  the 
retort  of  his  soldier's  experience.  He  has  found  the 
"everlasting  reality  of  religion"  in  the  Gospel  of  the  In- 
carnation. 

So  it  always  is  when  some  deep  experience  sets  our 
life  in  new  perspective.  Many  things  which  used  to  be 
interesting  and  absorbing  now  seem  very  petty.  We 
wonder  how  they  ever  took  our  time,  they  are  so  unim- 
portant. And  other  factors  loom  large  and  commanding, 
all  out  of  proportion  to  our  former  neglect  of  them.     So 

216 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

it  must  be  with  the  modern  man's  faith.  In  these  days 
of  double  tasks  and  of  straight  thinking,  the  fancy  Httle 
notions  which  cause  sectarian  disputes,  the  selfish  prefer- 
ences adhered  to  merely  for  denominational  comfort, 
which  have  rent  asunder  the  Church  of  Christ,  must  be 
thrown  to  the  winds.  It  is  a  blessed  fact  that  in  all  the 
great  essentials  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  most  of  the 
Protestant  churches  are  in  substantial  agreement.  These 
great  essentials  are  the  prime  factors  of  the  faith,  and 
the  rest,  the  points  of  difference  among  us,  matter  very 
little,  as  we  very  well  know. 

The  Danger  of  Leaving  Out  God 

The  test  of  a  religious  life  is  whether  or  not  one  leaves 
God  out.  If  a  man  tries  to  live  his  life  without  God,  he 
is  simply  a  pagan.  If  you  are  trying  to  live  a  Christian 
life  with  God's  help,  you  are  living  a  religious  life,  how- 
ever imperfect  it  may  be.  "A  man  of  somewhat  doubt- 
ful mind  listened  with  a  good  deal  of  impatience  while 
an  eloquent  preacher  was  speaking  about  the  war.  The 
address  was  an  inspiring  interpretation  of  God's  relation 
to  the  great  conflict.  At  its  close  the  impatient  man  sought 
out  the  preacher  and  addressed  him  rather  grufifiy:  T  sup- 
pose you  must  talk  about  the  war,'  he  said,  'but  don't  you 
think  you  ought  to  leave  God  out  of  it?'  The  preacher 
looked  at  him  steadily  for  a  moment.  Then  he  said, 
'When  you  leave  God  out  of  anything,  you  are  no  longer 
a  Christian.'  "^ 

It  has  been  impossible  for  thinking  Christians  to  leave 
God  out  of  this  war.    They  are  deeply  concerned  to  know 


1  Wilson,  "  Marshalling  the  Forces  of  Patriotism,"  p.  45. 
217 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

what  part  he  is  playing  in  the  great  conflict  and  what 
his  will  concerning  it  shall  be.  As  the  above  author 
suggests,  "The  mind  and  heart  and  conscience  of  the 
whole  world  are  reaching  out  through  the  clouds  and  dark- 
ness and  storm  to  find  the  Master  of  Life.  A  new  hunger 
for  knowledge  of  God  has  gone  out  through  all  the 
earth."  He  was  right,  we  cannot  leave  God  out  of  any- 
thing, if  we  are  followers  of  Jesus.  We  must  reckon 
with  him  everywhere  and  always,  for  he  is  no  mere  tribal 
God  or  local  patron  saint.  He  is  the  God  of  all  our 
lives. 

The  classic  illustration  in  the  Old  Testament  of  the 
man  who  dared  to  leave  out  God,  is  Jonah,  the  slacker- 
prophet  who  tried  to  dodge  duty  and  escape  from  God: 

Now  the  word  of  Jehovah  came  unto  Jonah  the 
son  of  Amittai,  saying,  Arise,  go  to  Nineveh,  that 
great  city,  and  cry  against  it;  for  their  wicked- 
ness is  come  up  before  me.  But  Jonah  rose  up 
to  flee  unto  Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  Je- 
hovah; and  he  went  down  to  Joppa,  and  found  a 
ship  going  to  Tarshish :  so  he  paid  the  fare  there- 
of, and  went  down  into  it,  to  go  with  them  unto 
Tarshish  from  the  presence  of  Jehovah. 

But  Jehovah  sent  out  a  great  wind  upon  the 
sea,  and  there  was  a  mighty  tempest  on  the  sea, 
so  that  the  ship  was  like  to  be  broken.  Then  the 
mariners  were  afraid,  and  cried  every  man  unto 
his  god;  and  they  cast  forth  the  wares  that  were 
in  the  ship  into  the  sea,  to  lighten  it  unto  them. 
But  Jonah  was  gone  down  into  the  innermost 
parts  of  the  ship ;  and  he  lay,  and  was  fast  asleep. 
So  the  shipmaster  came  to  him,  and  said  unto 
him,  What  meanest  thou,  O  sleeper?  arise,  call 
218 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

upon  thy  God,  if  so  be  that  God  will  think  upon 
us,  that  we  perish  not.  .  .  .  Then  were  the  men 
exceedingly  afraid,  and  said  unto  him.  What  is 
this  that  thou  hast  done?  For  the  men  knew  that 
he  was  fleeing  from  the  presence  of  Jehovah, 
because  he  had  told  them. — Jonah  i :  i-6,  lo. 

The  strange  blindness  of  Jonah  in  thinking  he  could 
evade  God's  selective  draft  by  getting  out  of  Palestine 
was  no  more  foolish  than  the  shortsightedness  of  men  to- 
day who  fancy  they  can  live  their  lives  and  leave  God 
out  of  the  reckoning,  the  God  whose  infinite  power 
radiates  throughout  all  creation  and  sustains  all  life 
through  natural  law. 

^Religion  Which  Stands  the  High  Test 

Jehovah  is  my  shepherd ;  I  shall  not  want. 

He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures; 

He  leadeth  me  beside  still  waters. 

He  restoreth  my  soul : 

He  guideth  me  in  the  paths  of  righteousness  for 

his  name's  sake. 
Yea,  though  I   walk  through  the  valley  of  the 

shadow  of  death, 
I  will  fear  no  evil ;  for  thou  art  with  me ; 
Thy  rod  and  thy  staff,  they  comfort  me. 
Thou  preparest  a  table  before  me  in  the  presence 

of  mine  enemies: 
Thou  hast  anointed  my  head  with  oil; 
My  cup  runneth  over. 
Surely  goodness  and  lovingkindness  shall  follow 

me  all  the  days  of  my  life; 
And  I  shall  dwell  in  the  house  of  Jehovah  for 

ever.  — Psalm  23. 

219 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

At  first  thought  this  beautiful,  peaceful,  Shepherd 
Psalm  does  not  seem  appropriate  to  our  turbulent  times. 
It  recalls  the  quieter  days  before  the  war.  Yet  its  middle 
section  speaks  of  the  shepherd's  protection  in  danger,  of 
comfort  in  evil  times,  and  the  strength  of  faith  in  "the 
valley  of  the  shadow."  After  all,  its  real  message  is  the 
triumphant  testing  of  a  vigorous  faith  in  the  stress  of 
things,  rather  than  the  passive  experience  of  a  soft  and 
easy  life.  The  heart  of  the  Psalm  is  the  throbbing  note 
of  joyful  trust,  '7  will  fear  no  evil,  for  thou  art  with  me." 
Just  as  the  presence  of  the  shepherd  is  the  protection  of 
the  sheep,  so  God's  presence  neutralizes  evil  and  makes 
it  harmless.  When  a  man  makes  God  the  shepherd  of  his 
life,  he  truly  has  a  religion  which  will  not  fail  in  the 
high  test. 

American  manhood,  with  nine  generations  of  Christian 
faith  in  this  country  to  lean  upon,  ought  to  stand  the 
moral  and  spiritual  tension  of  the  times.  Yet  in  the 
soul-testings  which  war  sacrifices  have  already  forced 
upon  us,  many  a  man's  faith  has  gone  tottering;  and  with 
ever  lengthening  casualty  lists  from  the  front,  the  worst 
for  many  of  us  is  still  to  come.  The  fathers  and  older 
brothers  at  home  need  a  religion  which  will  hold  in  war- 
time, fully  as  acutely  as  the  boys  in  the  trenches  need  it. 
In  these  swift  days  when  all  things  are  becoming  new, 
•even  the  eternal  Gospel  needs  to  be  simplified  and  put  in 
Tital,  compact  terms  of  current  life.  A  Shadow-God  of 
unreality  will  do  no  longer.  We  must  find  a  real  Com- 
rade God,  a  God  in  life.  Let  us  make  certain  that  there 
is  a  gospel  for  us  in  the  Good  News  of  God.  Let  us 
make  sure  that  our  personal  religion  is  a  faith  which  can 
stand  the  high  test.    Perhaps  that  supreme  test  may  come 

220 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

for  you  sooner  than  you  think.  Within  this  very  year  it 
will  surely  come  to  tens  of  thousands  of  American 
homes. 

If  this  test  of  your  faith  should  come  to  you,  as  it 
came  three  years  ago  to  Harry  Lauder,  that  canny  Scot 
of  the  bonny,  friendly  heart,  God  grant  that  your  reli- 
gious life  may  stand  the  test  as  grandly  and  victoriously 
as  his.  What  a  noble  testimony  to  the  Christian  faith 
his  life  confession  makes  !  We  quote  a  single  paragraph : 
"From  the  state  of  glorious,  proud  parenthood  to  the 
utter  loneliness  of  one  without  a  son,  have  I  come  in  the 
last  two  years.  When  the  Germans  killed  my  only  son, 
Captain  John  Lauder,  on  the  28th  of  December,  1915, 
they  killed  every  spark  of  ambition  that  was  burning  in 
my  breast.  The  things  I  have  personally  had  to  bear 
since  then  have  been  almost  too  much  for  the  strength 
of  any  one  man.  I  firmly  believe  that  were  it  not  for 
the  simple  fact  that  during  the  hours  of  greatest  agony 
and  trial  I  have  clung  to  my  God  and  to  my  strong  faith 
in  a  future  life,  I  would  not  have  been  able  to  survive. 
My  God  has  always  been  with  me  and  has  helped  me  in 
my  hour  of  trouble."' 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  that  it 
can  meet  victoriously  such  a  test  as  this  and  bring  a  man 
through,  in  triumph  and  in  quiet  confidence  for  the  future. 

The  Good  News  of  God  in  Life 

This  book  is  not  an  argument,  it  is  only  the  sharing 
of  a  vision.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  cometh  not  with 
debating;  it  comes  through  insight,  by  way  of  the  inner 

^The  American  Magazine,  January,  1918. 
221 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

vision.  "Come  and  see"  were  the  simple  words  of  the 
Master.  This  book  would  make  the  same  appeal  to 
thoughtful  men.  How  profoundly  true  are  these  words 
of  a  mystic  quoted  by  William  James,  "I  perceived  also, 
in  a  way  never  to  be  forgotten,  the  excess  of  what  we 
see  over  what  we  can  demonstrate" !  Axioms  demand 
no  proof.  The  great  realities  of  life  are  deeper  than 
mathematical  demonstration.  The  logical  demonstration 
of  God  and  immortality,  wrought  out  through  years  of 
toil  and  study,  leaves  our  hearts  still  cold;  but  these 
great  truths,  revealed  in  spiritual  experience,  are  suddenly 
felt  to  be  true.  We  know  the  truth  because  we  feel  it, 
and  no  argument  can  wrest  the  sense  of  reality  from  us. 
Of  course  in  this  scientific  age,  one  cannot  honestly  ask 
reasonable  men  to  accept  anything  which  is  not  reason- 
able. We  must  have  exactly  the  same  respect  for  a  fact 
in  religion  as  in  science.  Yet  the  modern  man's  faith 
should  gain  in  clarity,  warmth,  vitality,  and  driving  power 
by  generating  the  dynamic  of  religious  feeling  in  the 
deeper  moments  of  religious  experience.  There  is  a  sane 
mysticism  which  should  redeem  our  modern  faith  from 
barren  rationalism. 

The  unity  in  the  message  of  this  book  must  be  evident 
even  to  the  casual  reader.  It  is  simply  an  attempt  to  in- 
terpret the  religion  of  the  Incarnation,  the  good  news  of 
God-in-Life.  In  our  quest  for  the  great  realities  in  Chris- 
tian experience,  we  discovered  the  presence  of  God  in 
life,  unobtrusive  but  vital,  especially  in  crisis  times;  we 
discovered  clearly  God's  leadership  in  human  history,  as 
well  as  his  help  in  personal  experience ;  we  discovered  him 
immanent  in  nature  and  revealing  his  orderly  life  in 
natural  law.    We  next  discovered  the  divine  life  in  Jesus 

222 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

Christ.  We  noted  how  the  suffering  world  today  is 
finding  the  Christ  through  comradeship  in  sacrifice.  We 
saw  heroism  transfiguring  men  and  helping  them  to  un- 
derstand the  Christ.  We  found  through  Christ  a  clearer 
sense  of  the  personal  God,  the  Father  God.  We  found 
God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  while 
Jesus  died  to  make  men  good.  We  learned  of  Christ's 
power  to  save  men  from  sin  and  its  death  grip,  evil  habit ; 
and  we  sought  for  the  moral  energy  through  which  Christ 
saves,  as  he  challenges  the  best  in  men.  Again  we  dis- 
covered God  in  the  Bible.  We  found  it  to  be  a  book  of 
life,  which  grew  in  a  natural  way  out  of  the  life  struggles 
of  inspired  prophets  and  discerning  seers,  who  reveal  to 
us  not  only  their  first-hand  touch  w^ith  God,  but  God's 
method  with  men,  his  method  of  making  men  who  can 
wield  his  power.  We  next  discovered  the  Comrade  God 
in  the  life  of  the  Christian.  We  found  prayer  to  be  our 
natural  way  to  God,  and  the  channel  through  which 
spiritual  energy  is  released  with  a  world-wide  reach.  And 
finally  we  discovered  that  the  daily  practice  of  the  death- 
less life  makes  the  life  of  good  will  eternal.  Life  with 
God  within  does  not  die. 

Such  is  the  religion  of  the  Incarnation,  the  Gospel  of 
God-in-Life.  It  is  thus  we  find  the  living,  creating,  re- 
deeming God  in  all  phases  of  the  throbbing  life  of  his 
great  world,  just  as  Moses  found  his  eloquent  presence 
in  nature,  and  Elijah  in  the  life  of  the  spirit;  just  as 
Isaiah  felt  him  to  be  present  in  the  temple  worship  and 
Saul  of  Tarsus  in  his  daily  struggle.  If  religion  is  the 
life  of  God  in  the  souls  of  men,  there  is  enough  of  the 
vital  presence  of  God  throbbing  in  all  our  universe  to 
transform  it  into  his  glorious  Heaven,  that  flawless  life 

223 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

of  friendly  comrades  of  the  Christ.  We  find  in  the  vision 
which  came  to  young  Isaiah,  as  he  worshiped  in  the 
Temple,  both  an  example  of  God's  method  of  making  a 
prophet  in  the  ancient  days  and  his  challenge  to  us  today 
to  incarnate  his  Spirit  and  be  men  of  consecrated  life  and 
holy  purpose.  It  was  this  vision  which  led  Isaiah  into 
his  great  life  service  as  the  statesman-prophet  of  Israel. 
May  we  also  catch  the  accent  of  God's  call  to  a  worth- 
while service  of  our  world ! 

In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died  I  saw  the 
Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up; 
and  his  train  filled  the  temple.  Above  him  stood 
the  seraphim:  each  one  had  six  wings;  with 
twain  he  covered  his  face,  and  with  twain  he 
covered  his  feet,  and  with  twain  he  did  fly.  And 
one  cried  unto  another,  and  said.  Holy,  holy,  holy, 
is  Jehovah  of  hosts :  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  his 
glory.  And  the  foundations  of  the  thresholds 
shook  at  the  voice  of  him  that  cried,  and  the 
house  was  filled  with  smoke.  Then  said  I,  Woe 
is  me !  for  I  am  undone ;  because  I  am  a  man  of 
unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips :  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King, 
Jehovah  of  hosts. 

.  Then  flew  one  of  the  seraphim  unto  me,  having 
a  live  coal  in  his  hand,  which  he  had  taken  with 
the  tongs  from  off  the  altar:  and  he  touched  my 
mouth  with  it,  and  said,  Lo,  this  hath  touched 
thy  lips ;  and  thine  iniquity  is  taken  away,  and  thy 
sin  forgiven.  And  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord, 
saying,  Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for 
us?  Then  I  said.  Here  am  I;  send  me. — Isa.  6: 
1-8. 

224 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

What  the  Soldier  Expects  of  the  Church 

"What  Will  the  Soldier  Expect  of  the  Church?"  was 
the  subject  of  a  vigorous  sermon  in  a  Boston  church  last 
winter.  Herein  is  a  double  challenge,  the  demands  which 
the  returning  soldier  will  make  of  the  Church  after  the 
war  is  won,  and  the  soldier's  challenge  to  churchmen  to- 
day. Thousands  of  older  men  in  the  home  churches  are 
feeling  this  latter  as  a  challenge  to  renew  their  faith. 
They  know  that  the  boys  in  the  trenches,  who  are  fight- 
ing our  battles  for  us,  have  good  right  to  expect  us  not 
only  to  keep  the  "home  fires  burning,"  but  also  to  keep 
our  altar  iires  burning.  For  their  sakes  we  must  under- 
gird  our  religion.  We  must  look  well  to  the  foundations 
of  our  faith.  We  must  rediscover  God  and  be  on  better 
terms  with  him,  on  speaking  terms  with  him  in  daily 
prayer.  We  must  not  only  fortify  our  hearts  to  stand 
heroically  the  shocks  which  the  future  losses  of  the  war 
may  bring  us;  but  we  must  also  guarantee  the  boys  over 
there  that  a  bulwark  of  prayer  is  a  part  of  the  unfailing 
service  which  the  Christian  homeguard  is  giving  them 
in  the  churches  and  homes  of  the  dear  homeland. 

Speaking  of  just  this  challenge  to  the  men  at  home  to 
renew  their  faith,  an  English  private  soldier  wrote  to  his 
friends  earlier  in  the  war:  "The  soldiers  carry  their 
burden  with  little  help  from  you.  When  men  work  in 
the  presence  of  death,  they  cannot  be  satisfied  with  con- 
ventional justifications  of  a  sacrifice  which  seems  to  the 
poor  weakness  of  our  flesh  intolerable.  They  hunger 
for  an  assurance  which  is  absolute,  for  a  revelation  of 
the  spirit  as  poignant  and  unmistakable  as  the  weariness 
of  their  suffering  bodies.     To  most  of  us  it  must  come 

225 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

from  you  or  not  at  all.  For  an  army  must  not  live  by 
munitions  alone,  but  also  by  fellowship  in  a  moral  idea 
or  purpose.  And  that,  unless  you  renew  your  faith,  you 
cannot  give  us.  You  cannot  give  it  to  us  because  you 
do  not  possess  it."^ 

This  challenge  of  the  soldiers  to  their  half-religious 
fathers  and  older  brothers  at  home  has  not  failed  to  reach 
its  mark.  The  idealism  in  the  flashing  eyes  and  illumined 
faces  of  thousands  of  our  white  cross  knights  in  the  army 
of  humanity  has  stirred  to  unwonted  emotion  the  heart 
of  many  a  man  left  at  the  home  base.  The  service  button 
proudly  worn  by  many  a  father,  sometimes  with  its  double 
or  triple  stars,  is  a  constant  reminder  to  the  wearer  that 
somehow  the  boys'  life  of  discipline  and  devotion  must 
be  shared.  It  has  brought  a  new  consecration  to  many 
a  man  whose  religion  had  become  perfunctory  and  cold, 
as  a  deepened  earnestness  in  many  a  men's  Bible  class 
in  the  home  churches  will  testify.  Men  in  America  are 
feeling  the  urge  of  the  religious  impulses  and  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  religious  sentiments  as  they  never  have  before, 
for  their  lives  are  running  in  deeper  channels. 

Unquestionably  when  the  great  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
United  States  shall  complete  its  task  and  be  demobilized, 
another  challenge  will  come  to  the  Church.  History  has 
never  seen  the  like  of  that  vast  home-coming.  Already 
in  a  single  year's  experience  the  boys  from  America  have 
learned  much.  They  are  rapidly  gaining  a  capacity  for 
wielding  power  and  exercising  leadership  and  influence 
which  will  count  heavily  when,  several  millions  strong, 
they  return  to  control  the  next  two  generations  of  our 


8  Gilbert  Murray,  "  Faith,  War,  and  Policy,"  p.  245. 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

country's  active  life,  politically,  industrially,  socially — 
yes,  morally.  With  developed  ideals  of  disciplined  effi- 
ciency, they  will  challenge  every  institution  among  us. 
They  will  measure  by  soldierly  standards  our  schools  and 
colleges,  our  city  politics,  our  business  methods,  our  pub- 
lic health  and  sanitation,  our  recreation,  our  social  cus- 
toms, and,  with  equal  frankness,  our  institutions  of  reli- 
gion. Our  churches  must  prepare  to  pass  their  examina- 
tion for  efficiency,  or  they  will  turn  our  flank  with  a  tide 
of  indifference  which  will  leave  us  hopelessly  in  the  rear, 
while  an  era  of  progress  sweeps  by. 

We  must  not  go  into  details  as  to  this  coming  challenge 
of  the  Church,  save  with  great  brevity.  It  has  been  fre- 
quently noted  that  the  sectarian  weakness  of  the  churches 
will  receive  from  the  soldiers  the  sharp  challenge  it  richly 
deserves.  In  cantonments,  army  posts,  and  on  the  battle- 
ships the  boys  are  finding  church  union  practical  and  uni-' 
versal.  They  are  forgetting  their  sectarian  differences. 
They  are  developing  real  sympathy  with  men  of  other 
faiths.  They  will  come  back  too  broad  and  fraternal  in 
their  views  to  fit  into  the  narrow  grooves  of  denomina- 
tional rivalry  which  they  knew  before  the  war.  If  we 
would  enlist  and  serve  the  soldier  boys  after  the  war,  we 
must  unite  our  divided  forces,  especially  in  small  com- 
munities where  church  divisions  are  most  scandalous  and 
fatal  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  And,  as  one  of  our  reli- 
gious leaders  with  the  Army  in  France  expresses  it, 
"The  religion  of  the  churches  must  be  one  of  function, 
not  merely  of  creed,  if  it  is  to  win  the  returning  soldiers." 
It  must  be  a  religion  which  transforms  character  and 
shines  forth  unmistakably  in  the  personal  life ;  and  it  must 
be  a  social  religion  which  seeks  unselfishly  to  serve  and 

227 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

redeem  its  community.  It  has  always  been  true  that  a 
useful  church  does  not  die.  The  soldiers'  challenge  to 
the  Church  will  doubtless  be  to  make  itself  useful,  effi- 
cient in  doing  good,  in  accordance  with  the  inaugural 
program  which  Jesus  himself  announced  early  in  his 
ministry. 

And  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  he  had  been 
brought  up:  and  he  entered,  as  his  custom  was, 
into  the  synagogue  on  the  sabbath  day,  and  stood 
up  to  read.  And  there  was  delivered  unto  him 
the  book  of  the  prophet  Isaiah.  And  he  opened 
the  book,  and  found  the  place  where  it  was 
written, 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me. 

Because  he  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 

to  the  poor: 
He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  cap- 
tives. 
And  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord. 
And  he  closed  the  book,  and  gave  it  back  to  the 
attendant,  and  sat  down:  and  the  eyes  of  all  in 
the  synagogue  were  fastened  on  him. — Luke  4: 
16-20. 

Cooperation  Among  Christian  Forces 

The  symbol  of  the  Red  Triangle  has  won  world-wide 
fame  and  is  everywhere  understood.  It  represents  to  our 
soldier  boys  the  Christian  spirit  of  loving,  sacrificial  serv- 
ice, made  good  in  every  conceivable  way  in  which  they 
need  it.     It  guarantees  to  the  mothers  in  America  that, 

228 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

so  far  as  it  is  physically  possible,  their  soldier  boys  shall 
have  within  their  reach  at  least  a  substitute  for  home  and 
something  of  its  protection,  its  comforts,  and  its  friendly 
care.  At  the  end  of  an  illuminating  description  of  the 
Y  M  C  A  work  in  France  with  our  troops,  Dr.  Joseph  H. 
Odell  writes,  "Who  can  help  asking  himself:  What  is 
this  Y  M  C  A  which  teaches  Bible  classes,  conducts  mass 
singing,  follows  the  boys  everywhere  with  little  luxuries, 
superintends  athletics,  leads  men  into  the  treasure-house 
of  art,  provides  educational  facilities,  plays  banker  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men,  establishes  business  enter- 
prises on  the  drop  of  the  hat,  fathers  and  mothers  a 
million  of  homesick  men,  acts  as  a  circulating  library, 
keeps  the  dear  bonds  of  love  firm  by  providing  a  million 
soldiers  with  the  facilities  for  writing  home,  preaches 
to  them,  prays  with  them,  plays  with  them,  suffers  with 
them,  and  does  it  all  in  the  name  of  the  One  who  taught 
the  law  of  human  service — what  is  this  Y  M  C  A  ?  At 
present  I  cannot  answer  the  question;  my  head  whirls 
with  the  things  I  have  seen,  such  dissimilar  and  divergent 
things,  and  wrought  out  upon  a  scale  that  is  fairly  stag- 
gering. America  will  have  to  answer  the  question,  the 
whole  world  will,  for  it  is  something  we  have  never  seen 
before,  and  it  marks  an  epoch  of  spiritual  significance 
just  as  startling  as  the  Crusades,  the  Franciscan  move- 
ment, the  Reformation,  or  the  rise  of  Puritanism.  It  holds 
within  itself  potentialities  sufficient  to  cause  the  mightiest 
reactions  and  readjustments  of  thought  and  emotion,  and 
from  this  time  onward  the  Christian  world  must  move 
in  new  channels."* 


*  The  Outlook,  Sept.  13,  1918,  p.  95. 

229 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Certainly  the  Red  Triangle  work  has  won  the  unstinted 
appreciation  of  the  boys  in  khaki.  To  many  of  them,  boys 
from  remote  villages  in  western  and  southern  states,  this 
Y  M  C  A  hut  work  is  the  first  example  of  social  Chris- 
tianity they  have  ever  known,  and  it  is  a  revelation  to 
them.  Sometimes  they  are  inclined  to  welcome  it  as  a 
substitute  for  the  Church.  In  fact  one  is  quoted  as  saying, 
"The  Cross  is  the  symbol  of  an  outworn  creed;  but  the 
Red  Triangle  represents  the  highest  form  of  service."  We 
quote  this  merely  to  challenge  it  at  once,  as  false  to  the 
spirit  and  purpose  of  the  Association  war  work.  That  is 
never  intended  to  antagonize  the  Church  or  the  Church's 
cross.  Whether  visible  or  not,  the  Cross  is  always  in  the 
Red  Triangle^  as  sacrificial  Christian  service;  and  the 
chaplains  and  the  Red  Triangle  men  are  said  to  work 
usually  in  essential  harmony.  The  same  writer  quoted 
above  tells  us:  "At  this  base  hospital  I  found  the  Army 
chaplain  and  the  Y  M  C  A  secretary  occupying  a  room 
together.  They  came  from  different  parts  of  the  country, 
they  had  inherited  widely  different  ecclesiastical  tradi- 
tions, had  been  trained  in  different  kinds  of  theology, 
represented  different  denominations,  and  were  of  mani- 
festly different  temperaments;  but  in  that  one  generous 
ministry  to  the  wounded  men  they  had  been  bathed  in 
an  obliterating  sympathy,  and  they  agreed  that  when  they 
returned  to  America  they  hoped  to  be  co-ministers  of  the 
same  church  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.  Only  the  vitally 
essential  things  count  out  here."' 

Religion  and  the  Red  Triangle  must  never  be  sepa- 
rated.    Both  the   Church  and  the  Christian  Association 


^Ibid.,  p.  94. 

230 


.  ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

must  continue  to  serve  men  with  the  unstinted  devotion 
of  Paul,  expressed  in  these  words : 

I  am  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  I  may 
by  all  means  save  some.  And  I  do  all  things  for 
the  gospel's  sake,  that  I  may  be  a  joint  partaker 
thereof. — I  Cor.  9:22,  23. 

A  Comrade  World  for  the  Comrade  God 

And  he  made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.— Acts  17:26. 

Ours  will  never  be  a  comrade  world  until  men  find  the 
Comrade  God.  The  Father  God  makes  the  whole  world 
kin.  The  Great  Comrade  will  in  time  make  the  world 
fraternal.  It  is  the  end  of  ancient  history,  and  we  are 
to  see  a  new  world.  It  must  be  a  comrade  world;  but 
it  is  not  yet.  The  two  long  battle  lines  are  still  at  death 
grips.  The  giant  struggle,  between  the  clashing  ideals 
of  Christianity  and  paganism,  humanity  versus  material- 
ism, altruism  versus  selfishness,  and  Odin  versus  Christ, 
is  still  indecisive  at  this  writing.  It  has  involved  all  the 
world  except  the  interior  of  dark  continents  immune  to 
world  movements;  but  God  is  in  the  struggle,  and  a  new 
world,  redeemed  through  this  enormous  vicarious  sacri- 
fice, is  surely  to  come  out  of  it. 

Somehow  brotherhood  must  come  into  our  world- 
neighborhood,  and  the  prophecy  of  Joseph  Cook  be  ful- 
filled: "The  nineteenth  century  made  the  world  a  neigh- 
borhood; the  twentieth  century  will  make  it  a  brother- 
hood." How  truly  the  world  has  become  a  neighborhood 
is  well  described  by  Dr.  Fosdick:  "The  basic  reason  for 

231 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

this  war's  appalling  extent  and  terrific  character  is  that 
it  is  waged  in  a  world  of  increasingly  intimate  relation- 
ships. The  ends  of  the  earth  have  been  crowded  together 
as  man  has  conquered  distance  with  his  swift  inventions. 
The  points  of  contact  between  nations  and  races  have 
been  indefinitely  multiplied.  More  than  once  the  tele- 
graph stations  around  the  world  have  been  aligned  for 
a  message  that  made  the  swift  circuit  of  the  globe.  Such 
a  message  left  Oyster  Bay  one  night  when  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  President.  ...  (It  went  around  the  world  in  nine 
minutes!)  A  fellowship  of  life  so  close  and  intimate 
has  followed  in  the  wake  of  these  new  means  of  com- 
munication that  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that 
when  war  was  begun  in  Europe,  food  prices  in  Siam  went 
up  100  per  cent.*^ 

At  Cornell  University  one  finds  a  massive  stone  seat, 
cut  from  a  single  block  of  granite,  the  gift  of  an  honored 
professor  of  history,  Goldwin  Smith.  On  this  stone  seat 
we  find  the  motto  carved  in  bold  relief,  "Above  All  Nations 
is  Humanity."  Just  now  in  the  heat  of  war  this  motto 
is  less  favored  than  it  will  be  by  and  by;  yet  the  bare  fact 
that  two-thirds  of  mankind  are  banded  together  in  solemn 
compact  to  establish  freedom  and  justice  in  the  earth,  at 
any  cost  in  blood  and  treasure,  is  a  mighty  portent  of 
progress.  Even  at  the  height  of  this  most  awful  war  in 
history,  the  future  was  never  brighter  for  human  brother- 
hood. With  twenty-three  nations  sworn  to  mutual  de- 
fense and  in  cordial  agreement  that  wars  of  aggression 
must  forever  end,  we  have  the  actual  beginnings  of  the 
longed-for  League  of  Nations  which  in  the  future  shall 


«  Fosdick,  "  The  Challenge  of  the  Present  Crisis,"  p.  lo. 
232 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  SOLDIERLY  FAITH 

enforce  peace.  The  era  of  reconstruction  will  be  long 
and  wearisome,  even  after  the  victory  comes  for  which 
the  world  is  praying;  but  it  must  be  governed  by  Chris- 
tian principles,  which  will  heal  the  fearful  wounds  of  war 
in  such  a  way  as  to  -safeguard  the  permanence  of  peace. 
With  the  unique  opportunity  to  lead  in  the  rebuilding  of 
a  nobler  world,  which  already  confronts  our  country, 
Lowell's  splendid  lines  seem  more  timely  than  ever  in  the 
past, 

"Our  country  has  a  gospel  of  her  own 
To  preach  and  practice  before  all  the  world, 
The  freedom  and  divinity  of  man. 
The  glorious  claims  of  human  brotherhood." 

Suggestive  Questions  for  Discussion 

In  what  ways  does  the  religion  of  Jesus  seem  simpler 
to  you  than  that  of  some  modern  churches?  Why  do 
you  like  a  simple  creed  better  than  a  complicated  one? 
What  important  points  of  faith  would  you  call  the  prime 
factors  of  religion?  Do  most  churches  agree  on  these 
essentials  ? 

What  is  the  danger  when  we  try  to  leave  God  out  of 
our  lives  ?  What  great  discovery  did  Jonah  make  ?  What 
high  tests  must  religion  be  able  to  stand,  in  these  war 
times?  In  what  ways  has  your  faith  felt  the  strain  of  it 
all?  What  practical  help  have  you  found  in  the  gospel 
of  God-in-life? 

How  do  you  think  the  soldiers  are  challenging  the 
Church  today?  After  the  war  is  won,  what  do  you  think 
the  returning  soldiers  will  expect  of  the  Church?  How 
should  your  community  adjust  its  church  work  to  meet 
this  challenge?  What  effect  do  you  think  the  Red  Tri- 
angle work  will  have  on  the  future  work  of  the  Church? 

233 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

Will  this  war  result  in  more  or  less  suspicion  and 
jealousy  among  the  nations?  Will  the  Entente  Alliance 
continue  as  a  League  to  Enforce  Peace?  What  signs  can 
you  see  of  increasing  brotherhood  in  the  "world  neigh- 
borhood"? How  can  America  help  to  make  this  world  a 
Comrade  World? 


234 


INDEX  TO  SCRIPTURE  PASSAGES  QUOTED 


PAGE 

Exodus  20;  13 141 

Lev.  19: 12,  18 141 

24:20 141 

25:10 27 

Num.  1 1 :  27-29 168 

30:2.. 141 

Deut.  5: 17 141 

24:1,3 141 

33:13-16 50 

33:27 16 

I  Kings  18 :  25-29 177 

19:9-16 II 

II  Kings  19:  20-36 32 

Job  2 : 4 65 

14: 14 196 

19:25-27 196 

23:3-5,8,9 4 

28:1-3,9-11 55 

32:8 155 

Psalms  2:1 38 

8:3-5.9 48 

23 219 

24:1 23 

24:1,  2 52 

46: 1-7 22 

65:1,2 173 

91: 1,  14-16 189 

104: 1-14 44 

119:  18 141 

119:  105,  130 135 

121:  I,  2- 19 

125:1,2 14 

138:1-3 186 

138:7 35 

139:7-12 191 

Prov.  27: 17 125 


PAGE 

Isa.  1:10-18 160 

6: 1-8 224 

40:28-31 2 

54:8-10 46 

62: 1-4 64 

Ezek.  21 :  26,  27 27 

Amos  5:24 144 

5:14,  15 157 

5:21-24 157 

7:14-16 137 

Jonah  i:  i-io 218 

Micah  6:6-8 161 

Matt.  1:21 104 

5:12 198 

5:21,27-43 141 

6:9,  20,  21 198 

6:10 38 

10:29-31 56 

16: 15-18 124 

16:24 119 

17:20 4 

18:1-4 215 

19:26, 4 

20:25-28 187 

22:32 2 

25:20,  21,  34-36 205 

28:20 95 

Mark  5:30 180 

8:33-35 207 

Luke  1 : 1-4 148 

4: 16-20 228 

5:16 180 

5:27-32 120 

6:  12,  13 180 

7:39-50 88 

10:20 198 

235 


FINDING  THE  COMRADE  GOD 

PAGE  PAGE 

Luke  15:  7 198      II  Cor.  1:24 6 

19:1-10 121  4:1-6 91 

22:24 187  5:17-19 85 

22:39-46 181  12:9 4 

Johni:4,  5,  14 83      Eph.  4: 13,  24 211 

4:23,24 6  6:10,11. 165 

5:  13 212  6: 12-18 100 

5:17 2       Phil.2:8-ii 61 

5:39 152  2:5-8 84 

8:2-11 122  2: 12,  13 129 

10:27,28 198  3:8-11 69 

12:32..., 60      IITim.  3:16 154 

14: 1,  2,  19 198  3: 17 211 

14:6-11 81  4:6-8 65 

14:12..    107      Heb.  1:1,2 163 

14:15-18 93  ii-i                                       6 

15:12-17 187  i2:i,2;:::::::::::::::io9 

i7;2':::;:;:::;;:::;:;i^l  j---^^^3 6 


17:3 150 


1:12-15 97 


Acts 3:'i8 :::::::::::::: '.155  ipeter  1:6-8 195 

4: 13-20 171  i:  10,  II 155 

17:26 231  5:6-11 75 

17:  27,  28 177      n  Peter  1:21 155 

19:23 114      I  John  4: 12 5 

Rom.  5:  7,  8 123  5: 13 212 

7:14-24 loi      Rev.  i:  17,  18 131 

8:14-17 66  2:17 131 

8:18,19 76  2:10,11 211 

8:31-39 Ill  2:26-28 204 

I  Cor.  3:6-9 16  3:11,12 131 

9:22,  23 231  22:3 204 

15:46 114  22:3,  4 131 

15:54-57 203  22:11,  12 103 


236 


Date  Due 

0  27  '^ 

Jhfi-  '* 

1 

©a 

.      ^ 

